Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion defeated Hapoel Eilat 92-87 to send the Leumit Final series to a decisive 5th game down south by the Red Sea. DJ Burns and Qua Grant starred for Sharon Drucker’s squad as the hosts battled for the entire 40 minutes to chalk up the victory. Burns scored 26 points, Grant added 22 points and Freund put in 18 points for Rishon as Austin Tilghman scored 17 points and Isaiah Eisendorf chipped in with 13 points for Eilat.

Qua Grant scored early and often while Josh Freund also found points for the hosts but Tomer Porat and Isaiah Eisendorf kept the visitors close but down 24-21 after ten minutes of play. Brandon Huffman and DJ Burns traded baskets, Austin Tilghman and Dusty Hannahs scored but a pair of baskets by Jordan Coblin at the end of half gave Rishon Le’Zion a slim 43-42 advantage.

Freund nailed a pair of triples, Grant added points to give the hosts a double digit lead but Eisendorf and Tilghman went from deep and Porat scored inside to cut the gap to 64-60 after thirty minutes of action. Tilghman, Eisendorf and Or Ashkenazi all scored for Eilat while Grant and Burns countered, Golan Gutt and Freund traded triples, Coblin knocked down a corner 3-ball, Freund put in a layup and Burns scored inside to force a game five down by the Red Sea.

“The guys showed a lot of character and and came back after they hit some crazy baskets,” Rishon Le’Zion head coach Sharon Drucker said. “But we knew what to do to finish off the game the best way possible. We made some great stops on the defensive end and we made sure to hit our free throws. All in all it was great to see the team play this way. I told the guys before the game that they had this and there was no way we wanted to end the season losing the finals 3-1 and now it’s 2-2 with a game five to end the season coming up.

“We made some mistakes on both sides of the ball,” Eilat Head Coach Danny Gutt began. “We needed to do a bit more work. I told the guys that the tactical work won’t be worth anything if there isn’t individual defending and at the end of the day we had to do a better job on our one-on-one defense and not allow them to dribble and do what they want because each one ended in a 3-pointer.”

The MVP DJ Burns spoke about the win, “This win was crucial for us to stay in the series but we also needed it for our mentality. We felt like a game or two slip in the series and we needed to get our motivation back and we were able to do that. We’ll be ready and both me and Qua come from humble beginnings so we are used to this. I was brought in to help this team go up to the top division and I do it humbly. I’m a rookie and this an amazing experience, we work and fight every day tooth and nail for this.”