Hapoel Holon put the smack down on Hapoel Haifa to cruise to a 99-77 victory. Guy Goodes’s squad came flying out of the gate with Chris Johnson setting the tone while Joe Ragland and Shawn Dawson obliterated the Haifa defense to chide to the 22-point victory.

Ragland led the way with 21 points and 15 assists, Dawson added 20 points and Johnson put in 19 points in the win. Justin Tillman scored 20 points for Haifa in the loss.

“We played very well at certain points,” Goodes began. “This was good for us to feel some contact and play a tough game. We practiced well but I wasn’t sure as to how we were going to play. We were still a bit short on our rotation but we defended well and also shared the ball nicely.”

“The team is in trouble and we’ve gone through a lot this past month,” a concerned Haifa coach Sharon Drucker said. “A month ago I was here and we were in a different place. We have had 1001 issues, this player is gone and that one is gone, it’s not easy for the club and me that we have to find a way to play as a team. It’s not that we gave guys who don’t want to succeed but we are not playing as a team and I’m not going to hide it.”

Shawn Dawson looked back on the win, “This was a very important game for us to come back after the break as we have a crucial month ahead for us. We had a number of very tough losses last month so we needed this break to clean our heads and get ready for the big game that we have this coming Tuesday.“

Chris Johnson had the hot hand early for Hapoel Holon with baskets from the inside and outside while Isaiah Cousins made his mark for Hapoel Haifa in his debut but CJ Harris went from deep to give the hosts a 26-18 lead after ten minutes of play.

Hayden Dalton came off the baseline for a massive dunk and added a triple for Guy Goodes’s team to start off the second quarter, Joe Ragland began to find the hoop as did Shawn Dawson to give the purples a 58-38 advantage at halftime.

Ragland with circus act buckets, Dalton with points and Dawson for buckets as well got the third quarter off and running in style for Holon as they bumped their lead up to 78-56 by the end of the period while Ragland and Johnson kept pouring it on in garbage time galore to hand the hosts the way win.