Bnei Herzliya downed Hapoel Jerusalem 85-79 in an entertaining clash on Belgium Heritage Night celebrating the Belgian players on either side in Andy Van Vliet and Retin Obasohan respectively. Oren Aharoni’s squad came out strong as Chris Babb, Quinton Hooker and Chinanu Onuaku led the hosts to a 45-33 halftime lead. However, Obasohan along with Jalen Adams brought Yotam Halperin’s team all the way back to tie up the game at 63-63 after thirty minutes. But fittingly on Belgium night Van Vliet hit a pair off huge triples from downtown to take the 6-point hard earned win.

“We controlled the majority of the game and we played well,” Aharoni said following the game. “The first half was one of our best this season and Jerusalem is one of the best teams who ended up making a run in the third quarter. But we made some big plays down the stretch.”

“This was perhaps the worst game of the four that I coached,” Halperin said. “We didn’t start well and we lost the game already in the first half. The team is lacking in certain areas and we are constantly looking to see where we can improve.”

Bnei Herzliya scored at will out of the gate in the first quarter as Chris Babb, Quinton Hooker and Chinanu Onuaku all put in points early on as Adam Ariel and Retin Obasohan countered for Hapoel Jerusalem but the hosts held a 26-17 lead after ten minutes.

Onuaku continued to score inside while Babb knocked down shots from the outside for Oren Aharoni’s squad as Obasohan tried to keep the Reds close but Yotam Halperin’s team found themselves down 45-33 at halftime.

Itay Segev scored a pair of quick baskets, Obasohan went from deep, Willy Workman added points inside and Jalen Adams began to heat up with four consecutive buckets for Jerusalem as Andy Van Vliet, Yair Kravitz and Babb scored for Herzliya but triples from Ariel and Kaiser Gates tied the game all up at 63-63 after thirty minutes of action.

Sha’Markus Kennedy started pouring in the points for Herzliya to begin the fourth quarter, Hooker added an acrobatic layup and Kravitz went from downtown to retake the lead 74-68 with 6:21 left in regulation time. Van Vliet went from deep, Segev went flying in for a dunk to try and give Jerusalem some momentum but Van Vliet scored from downtown again to seal the deal for Herzliya.

Hapoel Haifa nipped Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 98-94 as five players featured in double digits for the reds in the win. Amit Simhon led the way with 26 points thanks to six 3-pointers, Scottie James added 14 points while Kadeem Allen and Spencer Weisz each scored 13 points in the win. Kris Clyburn and Netanel Artzi were Rishon’s high scorers with 24 points a piece as Maurice Kemp added 15 points in the loss.

“I am happy that we won,” game MVP Amit Simhon said to The Jerusalem Post. “This was a super important win for us and we worked very hard this past week in order to accomplish that. But we have to stay grounded, enjoy the win for now but tomorrow we have to already focus on our next game against Jerusalem.”