Hapoel Tel Aviv thumped Hapoel Haifa 92-71 with a huge second half as James Young scored ten points down the stretch to wrap up the win for Danny Franco’s squad. Both sides played neck and neck over the first half as Kadeem Allen and James Dickey led the way for Elad Hasin’s team while Young, Bar Timor and Josh Owens countered for Tel Aviv to head into halftime knotted up at 42-42. However, after losing Spencer Weisz to injury and Will Raymon to an ejection, Paul Stoll, Young and Timor turned up the offense to pull away over the final frame to take the 21-point win.

Young paced Hapoel with 24 points, Timor added 21 points and Owens chipped in with 15 points in the victory. Allen led Haifa with 22 points, Dickey scored 13 points and James Ennis added 11 points in the loss.

“This was a very important win for us due to J’Covan Brown’s injury along with the loss to Jerusalem and Herzliya,” a relieved Hapoel Coach Danny Franco explained. “The fans were very important for us in this game and they really pushed us in the second half to help us to the win.”

“I was here in the same situation like this two weeks ago,” Haifa coach Elad Hasin began. “No one likes the way the game was played with so many trips to the line and the amount of fouls were very lopsided.”

James Dickey got to work under the basket for Hapoel Haifa to begin the first quarter while James Young scored for Hapoel Tel Aviv as they took a 7-6 lead midway through the first quarter. JP Tokoto, Josh Owens and Bar Timor from deep got busy for Danny Franco’s team but James Ennis went from downtown while Kadeem Allen scored a pair of buckets to stay close but down 20-18 after ten minutes of end to end action.

Tokoto and Owens began the second quarter with points, Young added a triple and Timor put in a reverse layup while Egor Nestrenko scored a 3-point play at the other end of the court to bump up the Tel Aviv lead to 32-24 with 6:01 left in the half. Ennis went from deep, Idan Zalmanson hit a fadeaway baseline jumper, Paul Stoll raced in with a layup while Young scored but Gregory Vargas and Amit Simhon both went from beyond the arc and Nestrenko scored inside to even up the game at 42-42 by halftime.

Nestrenko was up to his old tricks to start off the third quarter and Allen went from deep, while Timor and Zalmanson answered at the other end, but Allen again dialled up long distance to help the Elad Hasin’s squad take a 51-49 lead midway through the period. Stoll and Timor both went from downtown Owens put down a dunk while Dickey did the same at the other end, but Timor and Stoll scored yet again to bump up the lead to double digits, 68-55 after thirty minutes of play.

Allen and Young traded baskets to begin the fourth quarter, whole Young kept scoring to keep Hapoel Tel Aviv ahead 77-65 with just under 6 minutes left in regulation. Allen and Dickey tried to keep Haifa in the game but Young and Timor sealed the deal to hand the hosts the 21-point victory.

Hapoel Holon just got by a game Hapoel Beer Sheva 72-69 in a tight battle that went all the way down to wire. Adam Smith hit a pair of huge 3-pointers while Tyus McGee also went from downtown during crunch time to propel Guy Goodes’s squad to the slim victory. Smith led the way with 20 points, McGee added 18 points while Michale Kyser chipped in with 15 points in the win. Amir Bell scored 17 points, Dererk Pardon put in 14 points and Cody Demps added 13 points in the loss.

The game MVP Adam Smith looked back at the win, “This was a tough game and we were missing a number of players so we had issues with our depth. But a win like this shows our character and who we are. While we can play on the offensive side we can also play tight defense as well.”

Bnei Herzliya crushed Hapoel Eilat 96-79 thanks to a late 24-3 run by Oren Aharoni’s squad by the Red Sea. Eilat led early on but Chris Babb and Sandy Cohen combined to go 11/16 from behind the arc to cruise to the victory. Babb paced the visitors with 23 points, Cohen added 21 points and Maurice Kemp checked in with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Toney Douglas led Eilat with 23 points, Noam Avivi checked in with 13 points and Roi Huber added 12 points in the loss.

“I’ve been locking in on my shot during practice and workouts,” Sandy Cohen said after his perfect game from downtown. “I got some open looks and was able to knock down some shots. Overall, it was good win for us and winning on the road is never an easy task. It was a shootout in the first half but we were able to get some stops in the 3rd quarter and went on a run and never looked back.”