Ironi Kiryat Ata pulled off an upset on Tuesday, defeating Hapoel Holon 83-79 at the Toto Hall. Eldad Bentov’s team trailed by 14 points in the second quarter before turning the game around with a dominant 40-25 second half. Kiryat Ata will now enter the tournament’s play-in stage, while Holon will move into the classification games.

David Green led the winners with 24 points on 5-of-6 shooting from two-point range, 4-of-4 from three and 2-of-2 at the line. Holland Woods added 19, Nike Sibande scored 12 and Yuval Levin put in 10.

The victory was tempered by concern over Sibande, who suffered an injury late in the game. “I’m honestly not as happy as I should be because of everything with Nike,” Bentov said. “I hope and pray that everything will be okay, because regardless of basketball, he’s an amazing person. I really hope everything works out. From a team perspective, I think we brought in the second half what we needed to bring from the start. That’s what won us the game.”

Bentov also challenged Green to maintain his intensity throughout the game, “David needs to raise his intensity and aggressiveness. He didn’t show up in the first half. He was -23 in the first half and finished at -5, meaning we were +18 in the second half while he was on the floor. It took him some time to reset, but he showed up in the second half. He can give us a lot, but he needs to be there all the time. He can’t take a break.”

Kiryat Ata has continued its tradition of giving young players opportunities, with Oz Huli, Daniel Sharon, Maxim Filonenko and Oren Trushkin all seeing action.

“You wake up every morning for this,” Bentov said. “It’s a lot of fun and there’s a lot of love with these young guys, seeing them break through. Daniel Sharon was on a minutes restriction and did an amazing job with six rebounds and five points in 15 minutes. Maxim was fine and Yuval Levin stole the show defensively. Offensively, I was very happy that he was aggressive and took what they gave him. I’m very happy for him.”

As for Kiryat Ata’s goals this season, Bentov kept expectations grounded, “We want to be the best we can be. Kiryat Ata has the lowest budget in the league and the first goal is to stay in the league. That won’t change. First, we need to collect wins, secure our place in the league and then move forward from there.”

Green said the victory was the perfect reward for a week of preparation, “It feels really good. We managed to get through a week of practices and preparation for this game. We knew we were coming into a battle. They’re a great team, but it feels really good to get the win.”

Green’s only miss came late in the game, but he said his focus was on defense rather than his perfect shooting start, “Eventually I noticed it, but at first I was just concerned about the defense. The coach was getting on me about my defense and rebounding, so I really tried to focus on that.”

The Florida native also pointed to the weather as his favorite thing about Israel so far, “I’m from Florida, so I like the warm weather. That’s probably the thing I like most here. The sky’s the limit for us. We can go as far as we want. We have all the talent we need in this locker room. If we focus on the things we’re not as good at defense and rebounding, we can go as far as we want.”

Holon head coach Predrag Krunic, whose team was without Drew Thelwell and Greg Lee due to injury and Shahar Amir due to illness, felt his team paid the price for its limited backcourt rotation.
“Congratulations to Kiryat Ata on a good game,” Krunic said. “We also played well, especially in the first half. In the fourth quarter, we simply ran out of gas. We played with a very short rotation at the guard positions because of the injury, and our guards played too many minutes for this stage of the season. We lost our rhythm in the fourth quarter and that was one of the reasons we lost. We had moments when we played good basketball, but there were ups and downs on both offense and defense. That’s something we’ll have to work on over the coming weeks.”

Regarding the search for a new point guard, Krunic added, “We have a few injuries and a few players who aren’t feeling well. If there’s anything new, you’ll be updated.”

Krunic said Holon’s first half provided some encouragement, but the team’s second-half execution ultimately cost it, “The first half was really good. We moved the ball very well, shared it and played good defense. In the second half, we didn’t do that. We missed some layups and easy opportunities, which allowed the other team to get back into the game quickly. It’s a reminder of how strong this league is, how important concentration is and how important it is to play physically for 40 minutes. Playing well for only a short period isn’t enough to beat any team in this league.”

Additional Kiryat Ata scorers: Brendan Medley-Bacon 8, Tomer Assayag 4, Maxim Filonenko 1. Huli and Troschkin also saw action.

Holon scorers: Yair Kravitz and Nataniel Artzi 17 each, Claudell Harris Jr. 13, Brandon Jones Jr. 9, Rivaldo Soares 8, Adama Sanogo 7, Sam Ayora 6 and Liran Azulay 2. Yam Nevo also saw action.

Also, Hapoel Beer Sheva/Dimona took an important step toward the Winner Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday night, edging Maccabi Ashdod 103-101 in overtime in a thrilling game in the southern capital.

The Negev club improved to 1-0 in Group D and will face Hapoel Jerusalem on Friday with an automatic quarterfinal berth on the line. A loss would send Beer Sheva into the play-in stage, where they would have another chance to reach the last eight.

Lovell Cabbill led Beer Sheva with 22 points and nine assists, while Christian Coleman added 17, Tyrique Smith had 16 points and nine rebounds while Noam Avivi scored 15 and Golan Gut finished with 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds.

Robert Turner erupted for 35 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort for Ashdod. Markis McDuffie added 14 and put in Omer Ben David 13.

Beer Sheva had a late start to its preparations for the 2026/27 season, but the team has already shown plenty of fight under new head coach Doug Spradley. After falling behind by 12 points in the opening quarter, the Reds fought their way back behind strong 3-point shooting and relentless work on the offensive glass, grabbing 20 offensive rebounds.

The hosts again trailed by eight in the fourth quarter, but refused to fold. Gutt drilled a clutch triple to force overtime as Beer Sheva completed the comeback and secured the win.

Group D standings: Hapoel Jerusalem 1-0 (+33), Hapoel Beer Sheva 1-0 (+2), Maccabi Ashdod 0-2 (-35).