Hapoel Holon dropped Nes Ziona 91-85 as Marcus Bingham once again helped the Purples to the win ahead of their showdown Saturday night against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Head Coach Guy Goodes’s team took a slim lead thanks to Iftach Ziv and Marcus Bingham’s play but Bryce Brown, Jake Van Tubbergen and Ricky Lindo helped Amit Sherf’s squad take a 47-41 lead into halftime. However, Idan Zalmanson and Marcus Bingham along with Jalen Adams and Ziv started to take control of the game as the hosts took the lead for good by the end of the third quarter to take the win.

Bingham scored 20 points, Ziv added 14 points while Adams chipped in with 13 points in the victory. Brown scored 22 points as Lindo and Van Tubbergen each scored 19 points in the loss.

“We started we a lack of energy after coming back from Igokea,” Holon bench boss Guy Goodes began. “We also had some injuries including Niv Misgav who had a neck problem but he played and did some nice things for us. The third quarter was terrific and we held them to only 13 points. I’m happy we were able to take the win.”

“The first half we played well and we controlled the offensive flow of the game,” Nes Ziona coach Amit Sherf said. “We didn’t play responsibly enough in the third quarter and if you gave a team like Holon a chance to flip the momentum you will have issues coming back. At that point we had to rely on free throws and fouls and that’s always going to go one way or another.”

Idan Zalmanson who changed up the game with solid third quarter play said, “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to especially in the first half. We understood at halftime if we didn’t put some body into it we weren’t going to win and we have to keep improving on that. We want to be able to play for forty minutes and not just in certain stretches.”

Ricky Lindo looked back on the defeat, “We played hard in the first half and took the lead but they and came back in the third quarter and what we tried to give it wasn’t enough as they made their free throws and now we have to get ready for Friday. We need to execute better near the end of the game and we have to be better down the stretch.”

Iftach Ziv opened up the game as he drilled home a pair of triples and Michale Kyser scored a pair of baskets for Hapoel Holon as Jake Van Tubbergen and Yair Kravtes answered for Nes Ziona Netanel Artzi and Ricky Lindo traded baskets but points by Marcus Bingham from deep gave the purples a 22-21 lead after ten minutes of play. Jalen Adams and Ryan Turell traded triples to begin the second quarter, Kravets and Niv Misgav did the same, Bryce Brown started to find the basket while Adams answered at the other end, but more points from deep via Tzuf Ben Moshe and Lindo gave Nes Ziona a 47-41 advantage at halftime.

Misgav went from deep to start the third quarter, Lindo and Brown answered, Ziv put in a floater and Bingham scored at will, Brown dialled up long distance, Idan Zalmanson put in a trio of baskets in the paint, while a Turell tried to keep Amit Sherf’s team close, but Bingham came back with more points to head into the final frame up 66-60 after thirty minutes of action.

Lindo and Ziv traded points from downtown while Bingham hit one as well, Lindo countered from deep, Bingham put in a pair of 3-point plays, Brown dialled up long distance, Adams did the same, Ziv hit a runner, Edge and Brown kept the visitors close, but Misgav free throws closed out the win for Holon.

Hapoel Beer Sheva downed Elitzur Netanya 88-69 as the southern reds jumped out to a 46-31 lead by halftime and never looked back. Iverson Molinar scored 25 points, Ray Spalding added 16 points and Paul Scruggs chipped in with 14 points in the win. Itay Moskovits scored 17 points and Bryce Washington scored 14 points in the loss.