There’s a full slate of Israel Basketball League games for the full first weekend of the new 2020/21 campaign.

On Saturday night Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion hosts Hapoel Holon (20:00) in a game that will see Trey Lewis make his debut for Guy Goodes squad while Akil Mitchell, Noam Dovrat, Isaiah Taylor and Darryl Monroe will take on Stefanos Dedas’s team with Isaiah Miles, Tyrus McGee, Guy Pnini, CJ Harris and Chris Johnson in a big matchup between two clubs that will be aiming for the league title.

Hapoel Holon coach Stefanos Dedas is excited to get the season underway, “We are at the start of a marathon playing in 5 different competitions and we want to advance to the final four of each one of them in order to battle for every available title.”

“This is our first league game and it will be a battle to the end. We know that our opponent is one of the best teams in the league and we are coming in with plenty of motivation to begin the season with a road win. We all know that Rishon Le’Zion is a traditionally tough club and we are coming into the game with confidence as we want to show that we are worthy of being at the top of Israeli basketball.”

Rishon Le’Zion captain Darryl Monroe also can’t to get the league off and running, “I’m excited that the league is finally beginning. We have worked hard up until now and it’s time to get the competition underway. It won’t be easy but we are combing in ready to fight and to play for one another.”

“We are really appreciative of the support we have gotten from all of the fans and we want to continue to represent the city as best as we can.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Eilat tipoff at Yad Eliyahu in the early game (18:00) as the Yellow & Blue will have a chance to check out the early surprise package with quality players in Joe Ragland, Casey Prather, Markel Brown, Zuf Ben Moshe and young center Josh Nebo who will be a relishing the challenge to face Maccabi’s big men in Ante Zizic and Othello Hunter in the paint.

Hapoel Eilat coach Ariel Beit Halachmi spoke ahead of the new season, “We want to take Eilat back to the top and making the playoffs is one of our goals. We want to give young Israelis the opportunity as well as foreigners who we were able to bring in due to the coronavirus situation. We want to continue to improve and those who have seen us already understand what we can do on the court.”

“We want to be the best team that we can be and we are with the players day in and day out. If we feel that we need to make a change we will do so. We want to have a team that will play with a lot of energy and will play tough every game. We may lose some but we will continue to work hard and improve.”

The coach also spoke about the upcoming clash with Maccabi, “We’re still working hard and Maccabi has a deep squad and we will go into every game to win. I hope we can come and give a good fight.”

Captain Jonathan Skoldjebrand also looked at the team he will be the leader of by the Red Sea, “We have players here that we normally not see here in Eilat and we have players that have been in the league for a number of seasons. I’m not sure if I’m the spiritual leader of the squad but we have a good team here. It’s a big honor to be here just to play basketball, whether I am captain or not.”