“As for Bnei Herzliya, it’s not who we play, it depends on us to be ready. They are good players but we have a lot of good players on our team and when we are locked in, we can beat anyone” – Derrick Williams, Maccabi Tel Aviv forward following the game 4 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv

Truer words haven’t been spoken. It really all depends on Maccabi Tel Aviv as Derrick Williams said and that’s what the Yellow & Blue showed in their 82-76 win over Bnei Herzliya to take game one of their best of three semifinal series.

If Avi Even’s team wants to win, they can win. If they want to lose, they can lose to. At the end of the day, Maccabi’s depth, Maccabi’s strength, Maccabi’s experience, Maccabi’s offense and Maccabi’s defense will determine the outcome of this series.

That’s not to say Oren Aharoni’s team can’t win two straight games against Maccabi Tel Aviv with the series moving to Herzliya’s home court. But they will need to really get 200% out of each and every one of their players and they’ve got to hit their shots which is something they had a tough job with in game one.

Add to the fact that Aharoni decided to register Quinton Hooker in place of DJ Cooper who had been playing phenomenal ball and you’ve perhaps made one too many moves ahead of a critical semifinal series.

However, all the credit goes to Maccabi Tel Aviv who came out a bit flat in the first half and allowed arguably the best player in the Israel basketball league in big man Chinanu Onuaku to dominate but were able to make the adjustment at halftime to take the win.

“I’m happy that we protected home court,” Avi Even began. “We didn’t have a good overall game defensively but we did in the second half and played well. We now have to look ahead to Sunday night. We have to be more focussed and sharper in order to take the win.”

One of the changes that Maccabi made was to bring back a less than 100% Ante Zizic in place of Jalen Reynolds who looked rusty but nonetheless gave everything he had in the 12+ minutes he was on the court. With the Croatian center back in the saddle after a very scary injury a few weeks ago will only be a plus for the Yellow & Blue going forward.

“We had a lot of deliberations whether to list Ante or not as we knew that he was not going to be able to be at the top of his game. He had only two practices with contact and we knew that it would take time for him to get back into playing shape. But by playing him now means he will only be better on Sunday for game two and going forward.”

Maccabi had to find a way to stop Onuaku in the paint or at least slow him down which they were more than able to do in the second half limiting him to just 6 points of his 25 over the final twenty minutes of play. In addition to “Chief”, Even’s crew were also able to put the brakes on one of the league’s most lethal shooters in Chris Babb who went 1/10 and didn’t impact the game as he was expected to. Add to that a 1/8 shooting performance by Shawn Dawson and 2/7 from Quinton Hooker and you could say that the Yellow & Blue did what they did what they had to do especially in the second half as they put the clamps on Herzliya and held them to just 31 points.

“A lot of credit go to the guys who covered Chris Babb because he is a very high level shooter,” veteran Israeli forward Jake Cohen said. “He is a guy that’s going to make difficult shots and and it came down being focused and intense in the second half.”

“I’m very pleased with how we played the second half. It was an important start in a three game series and we are now prepared to play well in game two. We made good defensive adjustments and applied pressure in the second half and when you do so it puts you in a very good position to win.”

While Cohen acknowledged that he didn’t have one of his best series against Hapoel Tel Aviv, the Davidson product played a significant role with 17 strong minutes on both sides of the ball in the Maccabi win over Herzliya.

“It was very satisfying,” Cohen said about his showing in game one. “It was a challenging series in the quarterfinals for me personally. I don’t think I played as well as I could have on both ends. So it felt good to play well. There are more things for me to work on and I’ll never be satisfied and I want to get better. It was very fulfilling to get back out there and help the team win and the team winning comes first and that’s what makes me most satisfied.”

Cohen’s performance didn’t go unnoticed by Even as the Maccabi bench boss praised his efforts in the victory, “Jake proved that when he was on the court that he can be very important. He played defensively very well against Onuaku but we have a number of important players and it can be any one player on any given night.”

Over on the Herzliya side, head coach Oren Aharoni knows that his team didn’t shoot well enough in this game to match the win and also had issues after halftime when they allowed Maccabi to dictate the game as the third quarter got underway.

“We played well on both sides of the ball, but we didn’t start well in the third quarter and our offense got stuck. We didn’t shoot well from deep and those minutes in the third quarter allowed Maccabi to widen the gap and it was tough for us to come back.”

While Onuaku had a good game, Aharoni also needs the rest of the players step up and help the team in what will be a do or die game two, “Onuaku had a great game but Maccabi was able to put more players into the paint in the fourth quarter. Exhaustion also played a factor. Overall he played well but the other players all need to step up.”

One of those players who will need to step up is Quinton Hooker. The guard was listed for this series in place of DJ Cooper who had been excellent over the past few months filling in when Hooker was out injured. Ultimately, Aharoni is aware that he will be second guessed to the end of time when he made the decision.

“It was a tough decision and we looked at the matchups,” Aharoni explained. “We did get something good out of it but Quinton didn’t have a good game. I’m fine with the decision and it’s easy to look back and say what if. I really hope that Quinton will play better on Sunday.”

Herzliya captain Yair Kravitz also weighed in on the Hooker/Cooper debate but was very “Pareve” with his answer, “Quinton and DJ are both great players. We decided to register Hooker who helped us take the cup and they are both excellent guards.”

When push comes to shove in this series, it will really be determined by Maccabi as Williams had indicated and their desire to finish off their opponents. Can Herzliya win on Sunday? Certainly. Will they win? Well that is an entirely different story.

The Yellow & Blue will want to polish off this series and punch their ticket to the final and in order for Herzliya to stop them they’ll have to see Chris Babb, Quinton Hooker, Shawn Dawson and company all step up.