Pinar Karsiyaka used a brilliant defensive plan to stifle Hapoel Holon and top the hosts 72-63. After a very low scoring first frame, Ufuk Sarica’s squad continued to buckle down defensively and held Stefanos Dedas’s squad to a poor shooting night as the hosts went only 7/29 from beyond the arc with only one of those coming in the second half. At the other end, Sek Henry drilled a pair of critical triples late in the game while Raymar Morgan continued to hit his midrange shots to take the win.

Morgan led all scorers with 24 points and 12 rebounds, Henry added 18 points and while Tony Taylor and Amath M’Baye each added 12 points in the win. Tyrus McGee was the Holon high scorer with 14 points and CJ Harris added 12 points in the loss.

CJ Harris drilled a pair of dead center triples to get the game underway while Maxim De Zeeuw found points from the exact same spot to give Holon a 9-0 lead midway through the first quarter. De Zeeuw put in a dunk, Tony Taylor went from deep to find Karsiyaka’s first points and Raymar Morgan scored two layups to close the gap to 16-8 at the end of ten minutes of play.

Tyrus McGee checked in with his first points of the game to get the second quarter underway, Frederic Bourdillon nailed a 3-pointer but a layup by Morgan and points by Amath M’Baye still saw Stefanos Dedas’s squad in front 21-13 with 6:20 left in the half. Bourdillon with a 3-point play for Holon was followed up by points from Morgan and a 3-pointer by Sek Henry cut the lead to 24-20 with 1:37 forcing the hosts to call timeout.

Guy Pnini lofted one from downtown but Morgan matched him at the other end while M’Baye also added points to pull to tie up the game at 27-27 but a brilliant inbounds pass play by De Zeeuw to Pnini to Harris saw the latter drill home a triple as the chick expired to give Holon a 30-27 advantage at halftime.

Sek Henry came out on fire to give Karsiyaka the lead while Morgan added points as well to start the third quarter, but Harris and De Zeeuw scored for Holon, however, the visitors stayed in front 40-36 midway through the frame. Willy Workman dialed up from long distance, but M’Baye hit a midrange jumper, Taylor and M’Baye scored from deep while Morgan scored from inside. Isaiah Miles drained a trio of free throws, McGee went in for a layup but Morgan scored a pair of midrange shots to keep Karsiyaka ahead 54-50 after thirty minutes of play.

Taylor opened the fourth quarter with points, McGee answered at the other end with a pair of buckets but Morgan and Henry kept scoring for Ufuk Sarica’s squad as they maintained a 60-56
lead with 5:29 left in regulation time. Chris Johnson with a gliding layup through traffic, Henry came back with two triples and Morgan added points to hand Karsiyaka the hard earned 9-point win.