Hapoel Jerusalem just ecked out a 102-100 win over Maccabi Ramat Gan in overtime to take a 2-0 series lead as they will look to move into the semifinals on Saturday night on home turf. The reds will most probably face Hapoel Tel Aviv in a best-of-3 tilt as they will try and polish off their series against Hapoel Gilboa Galil on Friday afternoon at Yad Eliyahu.

While Jerusalem cruised in a game one blowout, that was far from reality in the second game where Shmulik Brenner’s team bolstered by the return of their star center Amin Stevens to the lineup after having been out injured for a month and the general thought was that he would be out for the balance of the season. But that was not the case as the heart and soul of Ramat Gan returned to action and looked as If he did not miss a beat. Stevens was both very good on the court and also was clearly the glue guy that helped give the team belief that they could make some noise in the series.

Kendale McCullum who was the star of the show and could have/should have had a chance to win the game which I’ll get to soon, spoke about what it meant to see Stevens back in the saddle at the post game press conference.

“It was great for him to be able to play and even though he’s not 100% it means a lot. He was sacrificing his body to play and we needed the inside presence he was terrific,” McCullum, who scored 31 points said.

Brenner also complimented his entire team as well as Stevens who was a huge difference maker, but it was also McCullum who stepped up after the game one debacle, “I’d rather have 10 points and the win instead of scoring so many points. After the first game, the staff talked about stepping it up and they said they needed more leadership from me and scoring. So I was showing my emotions in this game and showing that we were going to win and fight.”

Getting back to the fact that McCullum could have/should have had a chance to win the game, he took the ball up as time was winding down and I thought that the guard was either going to drive inside for a layup and/or a foul or take the final shot of the game and thereby taking the responsibility on his own shoulders. However, that was not the case as he dished the ball off to Drew Crawford who ended up coming short with 4 seconds left.

Game, set, match.

“I’ll live and die with that shot,” McCullum said. “It didn’t go our way this time, I would have given it to him again we had run this play already that saw Crawford hit his shot. I could have been selfish and I could have taken it but I had the open man.”

Brenner and McCullum both said that they would run the same play again just as they had done with 51 seconds left when Crawford did nail the 3-pointer, but this time it wasn’t meant to be. When the two principles were discussing the play there was not a 100% consensus, but it eventually did become that. However, it was clear there was a little more to this than meets the eye.

On a personal level as a basketball fan I wanted to see McCullum, who was by far the best player on the court and I wanted to see him take that last shot. Give him the chance for glory and let him be the leader, but now the series shifts back to Jerusalem.

The reds did get a reality check in this game and came out with almost zero energy over the course of the first half but was able to dig their way out of the hole and find a way to take the overtime victory. It wasn’t a pretty win but a win nonetheless.

However, Yonatan Alon will have to make sure they don’t come in complacent once again a bit asleep at the wheel or else Ramat Gan will give them plenty of issues. The last thing that Jerusalem will want to do next week is to take another trip back to Zisman. But if they come in as they did for game two, then they may be a long evening.

Jared Harper looked to have strained something in his left leg during the second half and he had to go to the lockerroom in order to receive treatment. Once he came back, Alon and the staff took their time to put him back in but it seemed that whatever he was nursing didn’t really have any major effect on him as he drilled home the game tying 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in regulation. He also hit another triple in overtime to go along with an assist to a red hot Khadeen Carrington and a rebound as he was all over the court when it came down to money time.

The bottom line is, Ramat Gan won’t roll over and play dead in the Arena and Jerusalem has got to make sure that they are 100% focused if they want to finish the series off in a sweep. I didn’t think they had it in them after the game one debacle but I also didn’t know that Amin Stevens was going to be back in action. Let’s see if Brenner and his crew can still make a series out of it.