Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised past Bnei Herzliya 105-82 as Trevion Williams scored early and often to pace the yellow-and-blue while Tamir Blatt hit his shots from deep to record the win. Williams scored in bunches to start off the game while Blatt went wild from downtown with a second quarter quartet of triples to help Oded Katash’s team pull away and chalk up the victory.

Williams scored 23 points, Randolph added 16 points and Blatt scored 14 points in the win while Elijah Stewart scored 15 points in the loss.

“Finally, we understood the importance of these games,” Katash said. “We made it into an easy contest as we are looking to make sure that we have hike court advantage throughout the playoffs. Our goal is to now make sure we play our best basketball as we look to win the title.”

“The result wasn’t what we wanted and we came into the game with a very short roster,” Herzliya Head Coach Yehu Orland said. “I had to think outside of the box and this may have hurt us. We will need to see where we will finish in the standings after our last game that’s coming up next week.”

Rokas Jokubaitis looked back at the contest, “It was strange to have such an easy game in the Israeli league and we have had some tough games along the way but now we are focusing on the goal at hand. We are playing at home which is good and we won’t be travelling. But if we want to be on the top we need to play like we played the last month in the Euroleague.

Alon Michaeli reflected on the game, “We need to improve on a bunch of things and we have to take it one game at a time and look better than we did in this game. We have a lot of talented players and I’m sure that we will be able to show that as we have won some very tough games this season against some very good teams.”

Trevion Williams scored points a plenty for Maccabi Tel Aviv as the game got underway, Josh Hawley countered on the inside and Frederic Bourdillon on the outside for Bnei Herzliya, Levi Randolph started to find points while Jake Cohen scored on a putback to end the first quarter and give the yellow-and-blue a 33-24 lead after ten minutes of play. Elijah Stewart started heating up to begin the second quarter, Tamir Blatt nailed a quartet of triples, Cohen and Stewart traded 3-pointers, Randolph added a bucket and Jaylen Hoard dunked as Maccabi took a 59-41 advantage at halftime.

Hoard and Williams led off the third quarter with dunks, Bourdillon and Randolph traded triples, Stewart tried to keep Herzliya in the game but Williams kept filling the stat sheet and Jimmy Clark drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to bump the lead up to 85-60 after thirty minutes of action. Hawley and Daeshon Francis threw down dunks to get the fourth quarter going, Clark went from deep, Cohen scored a pair on the inside as Maccabi pulled away from good to wrap up the win.

Up north, Hapoel Galil Elyon shocked Hapoel Jerusalem 87-82 in overtime as Marcus Carr and Lior Carreira starred in the victory. With the capital city reds holding a 77-74 lead with 7 seconds left after Jared Harper knocked down a trio of free throws, Carreira’s last gasp 3-point attempt found nothing but net to send the game into the extra session where Carr led the charge and his team to the win. Carr scored 26 points and Carreira added 16 points while Harper scored 23 points and Nimrod Levi put in 15 points in the loss.

Marcus Carr spoke about the win, “We’ve been building all year to get to play at this level. My guys did a great job creating opportunities for me. We knew we had another level that we could take it to in the fourth.”

Lior Carrera added, “I was ready to hit the shot at the end of regulation and I’m happy Marcus passed it to me and that it went in. My role here is more than just points and we recorded an amazing win. To play with him (Marcus) is amazing. We have a very well connected locker room.”

Maccabi Ramat Gan downed Elitzur Netanya 98-86 in a game that was never close as the hosts raced out to a 47-34 lead at halftime and never looked back. Adam Ariel scored 23 points and Luther Muhammad added 22 points in the win while Kyler Edwards scored 25 points in the loss.

Hapoel Beer Sheva clipped Hapoel Afula 93-92 as Iverson Molinar scored from the free throw line as time was running out to give the southern reds the win. Justin McKoy led the way with 26 points, Molinar added 21 points and Cody Demps put in 20 points in the victory. J’Covan Brown scored 24 points, El Ellis scored 16 points and JP Tokoto scored 14 points in the loss.

Hapoel Holon slipped by Hapoel Haifa 81-80 as Mike Davis and Iftach Ziv scored points a plenty in the final frame to secure the win. Ziv scored 18 points and Davis added 17 points in the victory while Matt Coleman scored 18 points in the loss.