Hapoel Jerusalem walloped Maccabi Haifa 111-77 in a lopsided win by the Reds which they seemingly salted away after a dominant 28-14 first quarter. Chris Kramer got Oded Katash’s squad off and running scoring early and often as the guard dropped 15 of 29 points in the first quarter as the capital city rolled to the easy win.

In addition to Kramer’s 29 points he added 13 rebounds and 7 assists, Su Braimoh scored 24 points, Adam Ariel added 13 points and Tamir Blatt chipped in with a double-double of 12 points and 10 assists. Davon Jefferson led Haifa with 21 points in the loss.

Chris Kramer with a trio of triples and Suleiman Braimoh came out strong for Hapoel Jerusalem with 15 and 8 points respectively while Donta Smith who was making his return to the capital city scored 6 points but the Reds grabbed a 28-14 lead after ten minutes of action. Kramer opened the second quarter with yet another 3-pointer as he brought his game total to 25 points while the Reds poured on the offense with more points from Braimoh to go up 64-34.

Tamir Blatt, Tashawn Thomas and Braimoh kept piling on the points in the third quarter as Davon Jefferson, Michael Brisker and Chris Dowe tried to keep the score respectable as they remained down by 29-points, 89-60. The final frame was garbage time galore as Jerusalem Coach Oded Katash cleared his bench giving Niv Balul and Yuval Schnaiderman plenty of minutes as the Reds closed out the game 111-77.

3-Pointers
1) This was not much of a basketball game next there’s not much one can take from it. However, two things did stand out. The first which was loud and clear was Chris Kramer making good on saying that he had to be better after last game. Well he was better, amazingly better scoring 15 points in the first quarter and clocking in a game total of 29 points including five 3-pointers. “We had all kinds of excuses that w could have used, a short rotation, injuries, everything you could think of but we came out to play hard and I hit my 3-pointers at the start of the game. The sky’s the limit for us.” Kramer who is on a deal which each side can get out still could leave despite Jerusalem cutting Tarik Phillip due to the government emergency funding. Katash would very much like Kramer to stay but said that it’s possible he could pick up and leave. They hope not but that could be the case. I’m sure Katash isn’t the only one praying that Kramer stays and hopefully he will, listing him would be a devastating blow to the Reds.

2) The other that came up midway through the second quarter was that this contest was a disgrace to the game of basketball. Haifa did not begin to play competitively and it showed blatantly as Coach Daniel Seoane’s player showed zero effort, not on defense and not on offense. In fact, it was sad, a sad display of the sport. Coach Seoane knew that he had an issue with the effort that the players had put in and didn’t fight the way he would have liked them to have, “We made a lot of mistakes and okayed with no energy. But I believe that we can still come together to get out of this with better energy.” Here’s hoping that the Greens can pull out of this hole.

3) Jerusalem will finish off three games in under a week when they play Hapoel Holon on Sunday night in a challenging game due to the composition of Stefanos Dedas’s squad with no real big men in the middle of the paint. If the Reds could sweep these three games with the oh so short roster they have it will be absolutely amazing and a real accomplishment by the players and coach Katash explained Idan Zalmanson, “We will learn from the last game we played against them and we will come in with more energy and toughness. We have to give a push, get the win and take a mental break.”