Having earned promotion from Liga Bet last season after finishing second in the first-ever season as a team, Inter Aliyah played in their inaugural Liga Alef game on Thursday night, tipping off against Netzer Sereni at home in the 22/23 season opener.
After a busy summer, there were a number of debutants in the squad for the game, most notably ex-pros and legends of Israeli basketball; Yaniv Green, Meir Tapiro and Lior Levi. Green and Tapiro opened in the starting five, alongside last season’s stars Sam Roche and all-time points scorer Barak Swartzz, along with another debutant 18-year-old Ron Changel.
The new-look lineup started slowly against Netzer Sereni, one of Liga Alef’s strongest sides and one of the favorites to compete for the championship this season. Inter did find their rhythm in the first half as Barak Swarrtz and Ron Changel in particular, showed the kind of offensive aggression that brought the team back into the game.
However, by half-time Inter were again trailing by 6 points, leaving Head Coach AJ Mitnick with some work to do during the break. His inspiring words worked perfectly, as Inter started the second half on a 9-0 run to take the lead. Yet, those initial minutes were Inter’s best of the second half as the visitors again took control and by the 4th quarter had a commanding double-digit lead to which Inter would never recover.
Yaniv Green led the scoring on his debut with 17 points, while there were also respectable contributions from Sam Roche (16), Barak Swarttz (12) and Ron Changel (10).
On Tuesday Inter travels to Gedera to take on Maccabi Nahum in the first road game of the season, before going on a 3-week break.
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