Maccabi Tel Aviv captured their 45th Israel State Cup as the Yellow & Blue defeated Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 86-69 at the Holon Arena. Rishon came into the game with a very short bench but played competitive basketball throughout the 40 minutes as they stymied Maccabi time and time again. However, the Yellow & Blue used their depth to their advantage and outpaced the wine city squad shooting 13/33 from beyond the arc while controlling the boards to notch the win.

Yovel Zoosman earned the Most Valuable Player award by scoring 16 points for Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad which saw Scottie Wilbekin and Ante Zizic score 16 points as well in the victory. Egor Koulechov led Guy Goodes’s team with 18 points, Akil Mitchell added 17 points and Tal Peled chipped in with 11 points in the defeat.

Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion began the game with a number of youth players in protest to the date of the final not being moved to give the club ample time to prepare after three foreigners left israel due to the security situation and actually took a 7-6 lead midway through the first quarter. With the regular players back in the game Akil Mitchell got to work in the paint for Guy Goodes’s squad while Golan Gutt scored as well but Yovel Zoosman, Ante Zizic and Angelo Caloiaro put Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s team in front 19-17 after ten minutes.

Chris Jones and John Dibartolomeo went from deep to get the second quarter underway but Tal Peled and Gutt matched them shot for shot as Maccabi stayed in front 27-26 with 6:26 left in the half. Nimrod Tishman scored a layup for his first points of the game and Mitchell added points as well but Scottie Wilbekin drilled home a pair of triples, Blayzer put one in from deep also and Zizic scored two buckets inside to give Maccabi a 44-38 advantage at halftime.

Koulechov and Zoosman each scored a trio of 3-pointers to open the third quarter while Wilbekin found points from deep as well to keep Maccabi ahead 56-49 midway through the period. Tishman and Peled scored from downtown but Omri Casspi put down a dunk and DiBartolomeo went from deep to up the yellow-and-blue lead to 65-55 after thirty minutes of play.

Noam Avivi and Mitchell scored for Rishon to start the fourth quarter but DiBartolomeo and Casspi both scored 3-pointers while Zizic hit a jumper from the top of the key to increase the lead to 75-63 with five minutes remaining in regulation time. Peled and Mitchell each put in a deuces but Zizic and Wilbekin put the finishing touches on a 86-69 victory to take the Israel State Cup.