Hapoel Jerusalem got by Hapoel Tel Aviv 85-76 as the capital city reds continue their march towards second place overall ahead of the playoffs.

Xavier Munford and Jordan McRae got busy for Hapoel Tel Aviv while Khadeen Carrington and Brandon Brown responded for Hapoel Jerusalem but Danny Franco’s squad grabbed a 21-17 after ten minutes of play. Mareks Mejeris began to make an impact got Aleksandar Dzikic’s team while Carrington and Noam Yaacov also added points to send Jerusalem into halftime with a 42-37 lead.

J’Covan Brown began finding the bottom of the basket while Munford kept scoring as well while Zach Hankins featured for Jerusalem in the third quarter but Tel Aviv were able to knot the game up at 63-63 after thirty minutes of action. Carrington continued to light up the scoreboard as did Munford for the hosts, but Hankins kept scoring inside to wrap up a 85-76 win for the visitors.

Carrington led the way with 24 points, Hankins added 17 points and 13 rebounds while Brandon Brown chipped in with 13 points in the win. Munford scored 30 points and J’Covan Brown scored 15 points in the loss.

“It was a tough game and every time we come here it’s tough,” Dzikic said. “They want to play in the finals and we are still in Europe. We can try and fool ourselves that we are not thinking about it. It’s not 100% and it’s the same with Maccabi. It’s not easy to play against them but we managed. The next couple of weeks we know what game is most important. We still have to play Nes Ziona and Maccabi but the game after that is what is most important.”
“We began the second half really well,” Franco said. “Onuaku’s fouls forced us to play with a smaller lineup but it was there where we had a drop in energy on defense and we had issues in the paint. I’m disappointed with the loss and only 10 assists in the game really doesn’t really characterizes our team.”

Mareks Majeris spoke about the victory, “It was a competitive game and we came out with the win which we are happy about. We didn’t play our best game but we are happy with the win. It was a tough and physical game. They are a talented teams and if you don’t play physical the talent shows. When the physicality is there you can take away talent and that is what we are doing.”

Xavier Munford reflected on the game from his point of view, “This was a tough game with two good teams. They really did a good job on the rebounds and that hurt our game. We have to improve in that area and I also tried to do the best that I could in that area. Every game against Jerusalem is tight and they were able to get us out of our rhythm with their physicality.”