Maccabi Tel Aviv crushed Nes Ziona 83-65 as the yellow-and-blue grabbed a 2-0 lead in their best-of-5 semifinal series. Rokas Jokubaitis and Jaylen Hoard along with Levi Randolph paced Oded Katash’s squad while Yair Kravits, Ricky Lindo, Jake Van Tubbergen did the same for Amit Sherf’s team early on to keep the game close after the opening quarter. But from that point on it was all Maccabi as Jimmy Clark, Roman Sorkin, Rafi Menco and Tamir Blatt did as they pleased to close out the win.

Jokubatis scored 12 points while Menco and Clark each scored 10 points in the victory. Lindo scored 17 points, Kravits added 16 points and Van Tubbergen put in 12 points in the loss.

“We started a bit slow but we were ready,” Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Oded Katash began. “We knew that they could run but we really locked down on defense and I’m very happy that we were able to split up the minutes. We have to really be prepared for game three because they can cause issue. Bryce Brown was a target of ours and we learnt something from the first game and we did a very good job in stopping him to score easy baskets.”

“Maccabi is a very good tram and it’s not easy to play against them,” Nes Ziona head coach Amit Sherf said, “They can take advantage if our mistakes and then they get into their momentum and can begin to run. We will put in a good practice ahead of the game on Sunday and do the best that we can.”

Rafi Menco looked back at the victory, “I think that we saw this in the opening game also and we didn’t begin well. But once we got into the game with our aggressiveness and intensity on the defensive side they couldn’t handle it. I’m happy that we were able to win and we are on our way to reach our goals.”

Yair Kravits spoke about the loss, “This was like the last game, we battled at the start but then we started falling apart, we just can’t do that and now the only thing that is left for us is to believe. When we can control the turnovers we have more of chance to compete. Bryce is our guy and our leader, this game he just couldn’t score and we have to support him as a team.”