Maccabi Tel Aviv eased past Hapoel Beer Sheva 77-62 as 18-year old Omer Mayer starred in the victory and center Wenyen Gabriel made his debut to move the yellow-and-blue’s Israeli league record to 4-0 on the season. Oded Katash’s squad came out on fire as Rokas Jokubaitis and Levi Randolph helped the hosts set the tone jumping out to a quick 13-0 lead while Omer Mayer began scoring at will to bump the advantage up to 52-32 by halftime as Maccabi cruised to the victory.

Mayer scored 11 points while Randolph, Rafi Menco and Roman Sorkin all scored 10 points in the victory. Paul Scruggs scored 18 points, Eric Griffin added 14 points and Iverson Molinar scored 11 points in the loss.

“We made sure that we reached our goals for this game,” Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Oded Katash began. “We started well and did an excellent job in creating a big gap as we took control of the contest. In the second half we missed a lot of shots and if a few more would have gone in the game would have ended with a bigger difference. But we did a good job and we are being careful to keep the players minutes limited which we did.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Oren Aharoni reflected on the game, “Whenever you come here to play you have to be very good and our first half was awful both offensively and defensively and the game was done already by halftime, the second half was a bit better but when you play Maccabi in Tel Aviv you have to be totally focussed.”

Wenyen Gabriel, who played in his first league game of the season spoke about the game that was, “Physically I felt fine and no pain in my knee and I didn’t feel winded put there and was healthy. Mentally it was great to be out there with my teammates and especially to come out with a win.”

Neta Segal spoke about the game, “We weren’t there offensively and we were very soft on defense, we didn’t play our game at all and allowed Maccabi to play their game with ease.”

Rokas Jobubaitis put in a layup and dropped a 3-pointer, Levi Randolph hit a midrange and Roman Sorkin put in some fancy footwork for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Paul Scruggs tried to keep the game close for Hapoel Beer Sheva but more points from Rafi Menco, Wenyen Gabriel and Omer Mayer handed the hosts a 31-15 lead after ten minutes of play. Will Rayman put in a deuce, John Dibartolomeo, Menco and Mayer all drained 3-pointers, Jake Cohen scored a pair of baskets, Scruggs kept finding the basket for Oren Aharoni’s team, but Jasiel Rivero added points while Mayer put down a dunk to send Oded Katash’s team into halftime holding a 52-32 advantage.

Iverson Molinar and Eric Griffin scored to open the 3rd quarter, Jokubaitis came back with points, Scruggs scored on the inside and outside but Rayman hit a couple from midrange as Maccabi stayed in front 60-44 after thirty minutes of action. Gabriel dunked to get the fourth quarter underway, Molinar scored and Griffin jammed but Dibartolomeo drilled home a pair of triples to end any threat of a Beer Sheva comeback and give Maccabi the win.