Hapoel Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Galil Elyon 89-69 as the Capital City Reds punched their ticket to the quarterfinals where they will host Hapoel Tel Aviv on Sunday. The visitors got off to a hot start with points from Omar Silverio and Shonn Miller as well as Roi Huber, but the hosts started to chip away at the lead with Speedy Smith and Zach Hankins doing the damage but they grabbed the advantage in the third quarter with buckets by JaCorey Williams, Khadeen Carrington and Oz Blayzer to cruise to the win.

Smith scored 17 points and added 12 assists, Hankins chipped in with 16 points and Randolph scored 12 points in the victory. Chen Guy scored 16 points, Silverio added 15 points and Miller scored 12 points in the loss.

“We started the first half a bit slow,” Jerusalem Head Coach Shai Olerarczyk said following the win. “We weren’t as aggressive as we wanted to on both sides of the ball, but we name adjustments at halftime and we started to get going on our transition game. All in all we played better in this game than the last one when we won at Bnei Herzliya.”

Khadeen Carrington spoke about the win and moving on to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the next round, “Very important victory. We just have to thank God we are back in this position, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for us and it was a rough patch but we turned a new leaf. We are playing a tough team in Hapoel Tel Aviv and they are a team we know very well.”

Omar Silverio and Shonn Miller helped Hapoel Galil Elyon jump out to a double-digit lead early on but points a plenty by Speedy Smith but Roi Huber drilled home a triple at the end of period to keep the visitors in front 25-20. Smith, Khadeen Carrington and Zach Hankins tried to cut down the lead while Huber and Chen Guy but a pair of key buckets by Miller kept Barak Peleg’s team ahead 42-39 at halftime.

JaCorey Williams and Oz Blazyer put Shai Olerarczyk’s team in front while Carrington added to the lead to give the Reds a 60-53 advantage after thirty minutes of action. Nimrod Levi and Levi Randolph started finding the bottom of the basket for the hosts and Yovel Zoosman went for a pair from deep to wrap up the 20-point win.

Hapoel Beer Sheva stunned Bnei Herzliya 94-90 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Israel State Cup where they will head to Hapoel Holon on Saturday night. Southern Reds Head Coach Oren Aharoni returned to his old stomping ground where he saw his new recruit Mike Lewis score 25 points to help the visitors take the victory.

Fred Bourdillon and Mike McGuirl paced Dan Shamir’s squad early to give the hosts a 26-18 lead after the first quarter, but Lewis along with Egor Koulechov and JaKeanan Gant pushed Beer Sheva into the leads as they took the win. Lewis scored 25 points, while Koulechov and Gant each added 18 points in the victory. Bourdillon scored 23 points and McGuirl chipped in with 19 points in the loss.

Hapoel Holon overwhelmed Hapoel Haifa 90-73 as the purples held the advantage throughout the 40 minutes which saw is players score in double digits providing head coach Amit Sherf a well balanced attack in the win. Next up for Holon will be a quarterfinal tilt against Hapoel Beer Sheva on Saturday night. Netanel Artzi, Justin Smith and Shawn Dawson all scored 13 points in the win while Daniel Rosenbaum scored 20 points in the defeat.

Kiryat Ata downed Hapoel Eilat 80-61 as Sharon Avrahami’s squad jumped out to an early lead and never looked back to take the win and will now ready for a home date against Nes Ziona in the quarterfinals slated for Sunday night. Amin Stevens scored 17 points and Akil Pruitt added 13 points in the win while Elijah Stewart scored 26 points in the loss.

Nes Ziona got by Hapoel Afula 88-79 as Isaiah Whitehead, Jerome Meyinsse, Rawle Atkins and Itay Segev put in a strong third quarter to break a 46-46 tie at halftime to take the win as they will now prepare to head up to Kiryat Ata for a quarterfinal date on Sunday. Meyinsse scored 18 points, Segev added 16 points and Atkins scored 11 points in the victory, while Marcellus Earlington scored 15 points and Cassius Stanley chipped in with 14 points in the loss.