Maccabi Tel Aviv slipped by Kiryat Ata 93-91 as the yellow-and-blue punched their ticket to the Winner Cup semifinals and will face Hapoel Jerusalem on Friday afternoon (14:45) at the Holon Arena.

Roman Sorkin opened the game up with a dunk to get things rolling for Maccabi Tel Aviv while Guy Lavy and Will Rayman found points off the bench as Jemaya Neal, Tomer Asayag and Yuval Hochstadter scored for Kiryat Ata. Lonnie Walker started to fill the basket with a 3-point play and then from deep to help the yellow-and-blue to a 7-point lead, however, Noah Locke and Ilay Dolinski responded to pull Eldad Bentov’s team even at 42-42 as the game hit halftime.

Malik Hall and Neal scored while Lavy and Sorkin did the same for Oded Katash’s squad to begin the second half as Jimmy Clark added one from deep to give Maccabi a 66-62 lead after thirty minutes of play. Walker drilled home a trio of triples and added a layup, Locke hit a pair from downtown, Hall scored in bunches but Maccabi held on to take the slim win.

Walker scored 24 points, Sorkin added 11 points as Clark, Lavy and Brissett had 10 points a piece in the win. Hall scored 18 points, Locke put in 17 points and Asayag scored 12 points in the loss.

“I’m happy we were able to win the game,” Maccabi Head Coach Oded Katash began. “We have to credit Kiryat Ata as they were able to control the game for many minutes of the matchup. We will see this style in the Israeli league more than the Euroleague. We turned over the ball a bit too much and they hit some big shots, but we found a way to win. Things aren’t going to look that good for the next little while and we will need to find a way to win some games.”

“We are starting to really come together and the guys are jelling,” Kiryat Ata Head Coach Eldad Bentov said. “We are a young team with the oldest player only being 26 years old. We want to perform well this season and I want to win games that’s the ultimate goal and what I want this team to do.”

Guy Lavy summed up the game from his point of view, “I think that we are still preparing for the season and we know things won’t be easy. The most important thing is that we won and we have a big game against Jerusalem on Friday and hopefully we can make good on that game after the Super Cup.”

Malik Hall spoke about the team’s showing, “Never happy with a loss, but we did a good job competing and I’m happy with our performance, but never happy with a loss.”

Hapoel Jerusalem downed Bnei Herzliya 105-98 thanks to a strong final frame to wrap up the win and a date with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Winner Cup semifinals. Jared Harper scored 24 points while Justin Smith and Khadeen Carrington dropped 15 points a piece in the win. Elijah Stewart scored 25 points, Shalev Lugashi added 20 points and Chinanu Onuaku scored 14 points in the loss.