Hapoel Tel Aviv downed Hapoel Haifa 100-91 in overtime to take a 2-0 series lead in their quaterfinal tilt as game 3 will take place back at the Drive In Arena on Sunday (9:05pm). Tel Aviv’s Xavier Munford and Jaylen Hoard along with Bar Timor jumped all over the hosts to grab a 28-12 lead after the first quarter as Hapoel Haifa’s Marcus Bingham and Gur Lavie tried to cut down the advantage, however, the visitors took a 49-35 lead at halftime.

Stefanos Dedas’s squad continued to pour on the offense in the third quarter as Timor and Munford kept filling the basket but Guy Goodes’s team came storming back in the final frame with huge buckets by Alex Hamilton, Jon Davis, Dakarai Tucker and Bingham to tie the game up at 89-89 and send the contest into overtime. But in the overtime it was all Tel Aviv as Tyler Ennis hit his free throws, John Holland drilled home a triple and Hoard dunked to give his side a 2-0 series lead.

Munford led the way with 25 points, Timor added 16 points and Hoard scored 15 points in the win. Hamilton scored 29 points, Bingham added 18 points and Tucker scored 16 points in the loss.

“We’ve shown so far that we are the better team,” Dedas said. “We came in ready and our mentality is good and we won in six of the quarters. We blew it in one person and we gave to be careful as we didn’t have the passion to finish off the game. As for Munford he was terrific, I even told him that he would be the MVP before the game even began.”