Hapoel Holon ran wild over Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 101-67 to pick up their first league victory of the season. Following a close opening ten minutes, the hosts dominated the final three quarters of the game on the strength of fine play inside by Michale Kyser along with terrific outside shooting by Rafi Menco (4/5 form 3) to take the win.

Kyser and Menco each scored 18 points, Joe Ragland added 14 points and 7 assists while Mark Ogden chipped in with 10 points in the victory which saw Holon dish out a total of 31 assists while shotgun 12/24 from beyond the arc. Maurice Kemp led the way for Rishon with 24 points, Netanel Artzi added 15 points and Noam Dovrat scored 14 points in the loss.

“The key was just being prepared form practice and doing what coach told us,” Kyser said following the game. “Coach wants us to be a unit that will play hard together. We have our main goal to compete for a championship and we have guys that are hungry to win.”

Maurizio Buscaglia also reflected on the win, “In my mind it’s clear that in the second quarter we went to the one on one defense. The second was ball sharing and we were moving better and better on the court. Five players over 9 points, plenty of assists and rebounds and we packed the paint very well. Guys from the bench brought energy to the court. We focused on shutting down TJ Williams and Kris Clyburn and we did a good job.”

“I can tell you a lot of reasons for the loss,” Guy Goodes began. “The new players, not having an exhibition game in ten days. But our focus our chemistry just wasn’t there. We went through a type of hell today but the season is long. If we see that things aren’t going well then we will make a change in personnel. We have high standards here at this club and if the players can’t handle it then they won’t be here.”

Steven Gray opened the scoring for the hosts with a sweet jump shot inside the paint while Michale Kyser put down a pair of uncontested dunks but points by TJ Williams and Malik Dime along with a triple by Netanel Artzi kept the game close midway through the first quarter with Holon in front 10-8. Dime went in for an alleyoop but Gray immediately answered from downtown while Noam Dovrat did the same at the other end of the floor as the frantic pace continued.

Mark Ogden scored his first Israeli league points inside the paint while Maurice Kemp cleaned up the garage for Rishon Le’Zion but Chris Johnson drilled home a corner 3-ball at the end of the shot clock as Frederic Bourdillon did the same to give Maurizio Buscaglia’s team a slight 23-21 advantage after ten minutes.

Rafi Menco nailed a couple of 3-pointers while Ogden and Kyser scored as well, but Kemp and Dime began to fill the basket inside while Koulechov did the same for Guy Goodes’s squad but Holon expanded it’s lead to 10-points, 37-27 with 5:30 left in the second quarter. Artzi and Gray traded buckets, Johnson put in an easy layup off the glass, Kyser scored inside as well as the hosts took a 49-34 lead into halftime.

Kyser go to work on the inside while Menco did the same on the outside as Artzi tried to keep Rishon’s relevant but Ragland added a layup and one to keep Holon ahead 58-42 midway through the third quarter. Kyser and Johnson were up to their old tricks, Ragland went from downtown as Kemp and Dovrat desperately tried to keep Goodes’s team in the game, but Guy Pnini dialled up long distance and Niv Misgav hit a floater at the buzzer to bump up the lead to 78-55 after thirty minutes of action.

Ogden and Pnini ran a perfect pick and roll to begin the fourth quarter while Ogden added another bucket, Menco drilled in a corner triple, Ragland scored as well as Eidan Alber to help Holon run away with the 34-point victory.

Bnei Herzliya slipped by Hapoel Tel Aviv 79-76 as the snatched the win in the final minute of the game to surprise the Reds in front of their fans at the Drive In Arena. The hosts led for most of the way but with the score 76-75 in their favor Danny Franco’s squad fouled Chris Babb to get the final ball back with 15 seconds to go instead of relying on their defense to shutdown Herzliya. But Babb hit his free throws and Hapoel missed their two final attempts as Oren Aharoni’s team took the win.

Chinanu Onuaku led the way for Herzliya with 20 points and 10 rebounds, Andy Van Vliet added 15 points and Chris Babb scored 14 points in the win. JP Tokoto scored 16 points, Idan Zalamnson added 13 points and James Young chipped in with 12 points in the loss.

“The players really did a great job and our centers had 4 fouls a piece but they showed maturity,” Aharoni said following the game. “As time goes by we will continue to do good things. This was a win but it’s also a marathon.”

“We just played like a team and we continued to fight,” explained Onuaku. “We were down all game and we had to battle. Our chemistry is getting better.”

Hapoel coach Danny Franco spoke about the disappointing defeat, “We were a bit quick to do things and as we built up momentum and used out energy the players tired. We weren’t able to finish the game off the way we wanted to. Maybe we were a bit pressured because its as a home game and we wanted to win.”