Hapoel Jerusalem 74-86 Maccabi Ashdod
The champions of Israel yielded to Ashdod’s hard-working performance in a shocking opening defeat of the 17/18 season. With Ashdod’s lead as large as 18 points, the final whistle blew with Hapoel conceding 86 points at home. Jerusalem’s lackadaisical performance saw the reining champs even on points with second place Nahariya after four games. Ashdod’s brilliant night showed a real response to last week’s stunning defeat in Rishon with a viciously determined core of David Laury and Sek Henry. Laury put in an incredible double-double (22p,11r) along with a 26-point game from Henry. Gerald Lee made the most of his minimal game-time by netting 11 points in just seventeen minutes while Cameron Long putting in solid work for the visitors (10p,5r). Jerusalem’s scoring was evenly spread throughout the team with 16 points coming each from three players (Jerome Dyson, Bar Timor, and Austin Daye), plus/minuses of -12, 2, & 10, respectively, paint a more accurate picture of Jerusalem’s sloppy defeat.

Maccabi Tel Aviv 83-62 Maccabi Haifa
The Greens hung tough for 3 quarters but the Yellow & Blue were able to pull away in the last frame outscoring the visitors 27-11 over the last ten minutes to take the 21-point victory. Jonah Bolden starred offensively for Maccabi with 20 points going 4/5 from beyond the arc while Pierre Jackson dropped 10 points and added 8 assists. Haifa was led by Angel Rodriguez who flirted withal triple double, scoring 14 points, pulling dow 7 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists in the loss.

Hapoel Tel Aviv 82-76 Hapoel Eilat
Hapoel Tel aviv beat Hapoel Eilat 82-76, in a game of exciting lead changes in which Hapoel Tel aviv came out on top. After getting off to a hot start, Tel Aviv was up 6 points in the first and second frames, but after half time Eilat outscored the hosts 25-18 in the third quarter and went up by one point. However, Eilat couldn’t hold onto their slim advantage and fell to the Reds by 6-points. Jerel McNeal led Hapoel Tel Aviv with 19 points and 7 assists, Rafi Menco supplemented him with a near double double recording 13 pts and 9 rebounds. Three other players scored in double digits as Tomer Ginat and Adrian Banks each had 12 points and Jeff Allen had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Mike Rosario topped all scorers and guided Eilat with 20 points and 3 rebounds while being backed up by Demetrius Treadwell who had a double double registering 19 points and 13 rebounds.

Ike Rosefelt, Hapoel Eilat:
“They played harder especially to start the game and we can’t come out with that intensity on the road, waiting for them to hit us first and that’s what happened. You can’t win on the road with that mentality. There was a lot of things on our end that we didn’t do that we practiced. We wound up not executing at the end of the game and when you have a 6 point game at the end of it those little things add up. We could have won the game but we didn’t follow up on them.”

Jerel McNeal, Hapoel Tel Aviv:
“It was a tough game. Obviously we have a lot of respect for the team that we were playing, they have a lot of good players and guys who can do things offensively and they played really hard. But every night basketball isn’t always pretty and tonight was a little bit of an ugly game, however, this is the first game out of our last three in which we started off pretty well. We got out early, but then we lost some momentum and the game got kind of ugly and mucked up. Give credit to Eilat for fighting, they never gave up but we were able to come through in the 4th quarter and our fans really helped us pull the game out. It isn’t always pretty but at the end of the day it is the result that counts the most.”

Leading by example:
“The biggest thing for me is to lead by example and I do my best to bring my personality, grit, and toughness to not just every game but to every practice. I think i’ve tried to do that since I’ve been here and it hasn’t been easy for me trying to get back in the rhythm after not playing for a while and having some stuff going on at home before I got ready to come out here. But I think all of the guys in the locker room have been great, all credit to them because they have been really patient with me and have been helping me along and I’ve been trying to do the same with them.”

UNET Holon 88-81 Gilboa Galil
After a close first quarter, Holon led Galil at halftime by 14 and by 16 at the end of the 3rd quarter. But Galil’s late comeback, outscoring Holon 24-15 in the 4th quarter was too little, too late. Terrell Tu Holloway guided Holon with 21 points, 6 boards and 6 assists, while Tamir Blatt tallied 17 points and Joe Alexander aided him with a double double, 13 points and 11 rebounds. Four players scored in double digits for Galil in the loss, including Tyler Stone who recorded a double double with 20 points and 11 rebounds as Zach LeDay complimented him with 18 points and 5 boards. Elijah Johnson added 14 points with 7 rebounds and Tal Karpelesz had 10 points in the loss.

Nes Tziona 71-85 Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion
Visiting Rishon defeated Nes Tziona by 14 thanks to Jason Siggers 22 points and Murphy Holloway’s 18 points and 12 rebounds. Dequan Cook led the way for the hosts with 22 points in a losing cause.

Nahariya 95-82 Bnei Herzliya
Corey Webster scored 23 points while Alex Young dropped 16 for the hosts in the 13-point win. Taureen Green dropped 20 points as Jeff Adrien scored 18 in the defeat.