Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Dubai 109-97 as Vasilije Micic and Elijah Bryant teamed up in the third quarter to lead the reds to 35-19 frame to grab the lead and pace Dimitrios Itoudis’s team to the victory. With the win, Hapoel moves to 7-2 on the season as they will face Hapoel Jerusalem in the Winner Cup Final Saturday night at the Arena in the capital city before heading off on another continental double week where they will play Baskonia and Fenerbahce.

Filip Petrusev and Dwayne Bacon were on fire for Dubai to start the game but Johnathan Motley, Vasilije Micic and Ish Wainright who came on near the end of the opening quarter cut the lead down to 26-25 after ten minutes of play. Elijah Bryant scored, Kosta Kondic responded with a pair from deep while Antonio Blakeney did the same and added a trio of deuces as well but Bacon kept Jurica Golemac’s squad in 48-47 at halftime.

Vasilije Micic took control of the proceedings with points a plenty to begin the second half, Bryant also added a pair of triples as well, while Dan Oturu scored inside as Hapoel grabbed an 82-67 lead after thirty minutes of action. Bacon tried to keep Dubai close while Boogie Ellis also scored but Blakeney kept finding the bottom of the basket, while Motley scored to close out the win.

Bryant scored 25 points, Micic added 19 points while Motley and Blakeney each chipped in with 15 points a piece for Hapoel while Bacon led all scorers with 36 points Ellis put in 16 points and Petrusev scored 11 points for Dubai.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis spoke about the victory, “We came here with one purpose, to bounce back from last game and with the win and performance we managed to do so. We had some problems on the defensive end but we managed to hold them, but they went to the line 40 times and they had the ball a lot of times, but we outscored them at the end whether its as small ball or big ball. It was a very important win for us.”

Ish Wainright talked about the win, “We said pregame that it would be physical but we stuck to our game plan. We couldn’t stop their best player but we ended up winning. We will learn from our mistakes and it’s on to our next game against Jerusalem. We trusted each other and the third quarter took us over the hump.”

Dan Oturu also discussed the contest, “The start of the third quarter we turned it up defensively and started playing more aggressively on offense. The way we played in that quarter got us the win. We play Jerusalem next and we got teh win now and the goal is to take two wins this week. We will focus on the game plan and do what we always try to do which is to come out with the win.”

Bnei Herzliya defeated Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 95-90 as Chinanu Onuaku recorded a triple-double and Elijah Stewart scored 30 points in the victory. DJ Burns, Qua Grant and Josh Freund scored for Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion while Stewart, Jordon Varnado, Max Heidegger and Onuaku responded for Bnei Herzliya early on to take a 47-44 at halftime. Burns, Grant and Marcus Williams kept Sharon Drucker’s team close in the second half but the duo of Onuaku and Stewart proved otherwise be unstoppable as Yehu Orland’s team picked up their first win of the season. Onuaku scored 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out 11 assists in addition to Stewart’s 30 points as Burns scored 18 points and Grant put in 17 points in the loss.