In Winner Cup action, Hapoel Jerusalem rolled past Maccabi Ashdod 110-77 as Kenneth Lofton Jr. helped the Reds break the game open in the third quarter with ten of his 23 points to cruise to the victory.

Yovel Zoosman left the game with an ankle injury while Sasa Obradovic’s team will be without their star guard Jared Harper for the foreseeable future due to a thumb injury. Lofton scored 23 points, David Roddy added 17 points and Shake Milton dropped 14 points in the win while, Augustine Rubit scored 19 points and Robert Turner chipped in with 11 points in the loss.

“I think the contribution of the whole team was there defensively,” Obradovic said following the game. “We raised the rhythm and that gave us some easy points in the first half. Maybe we didn’t start the way we wanted, with a team who has a certain quality, they scored almost everything in the first quarter, it was really amazing to see. On the other hand, we should do better, we are still searching for the right form which is normal for this period. It’s a completely new team, some guys joined recently and we didn’t have the time to go through the philosophy systems and what we want, but since we have smart guys and experienced guys who can catch pretty fast, I’m an optimist that this can work pretty fast.”

Obradovic also spoke about Harper’s absence, “He’s a part of being the leader and the key player, for everyone it’s a big mission, we will try to find a way to replace him with some team game, but it’s hard, definitely, even though people are talking about some new addition, if there is no other concrete or let’s say person who can help, I don’t think we should go for someone just to sign. So I really believe he’s also a special man who recovers, they told me, unbelievable fast and I believe this should not be too long when I see him.”

Ashdod Head Coach Dan Katzir spoke about the game, “For me, every game is the same, so in the first half, when we played well, I felt great. In the second half, when we didn’t play as well, it obviously didn’t feel as good. Our stamina ran out quickly and we started running out of energy midway through the second quarter and by the third quarter it was already starting to catch up with us. I still think we could have managed it and dealt with it differently, but right now, physically, in the middle of September—or at the beginning of September—we’re not yet at the level required to compete for 40 minutes against a team like this.”

David Roddy also shared his thoughts, “It was a great experience. It’s a lot of fun to play in front of fans. You know, we did scrimmage at home but, you know, it’s different when, you know, it’s in a cup and things like that. So, really felt good to just get back out on the court after a long offseason and really happy with the result.”

Omer Ben-David talked about the game as well, “I think in the first half we came out with more fight and played better. I think there were a lot of good things for us to take from the first half, especially. In the second half, I don’t really know what happened, but we didn’t come out the way we needed to. It’s okay. In the end, this was our first official game. We’ll improve, and we definitely won’t look like this going forward. I believe things will get better.”

Nes Ziona got by Kiryat Ata 98-94 in a game that saw each team have five players in double digits. After a fairly tight first half that saw visiting Nes Ziona take a 46-40 lead into halftime, Paul Corsaro’s team pulled away in the third quarter but then needed to hold on as Eldad Bentov’s team made a furious comeback that just came up short as time ran out. Paris Lee scored 19 points, Jackson Rowe added 15 points and Justin James scored 14 points in the win while Nike Sibande scored 19 points while Holland Woods and David Green each put in 18 points in the loss.