Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised to a 104-73 win over Hapoel Galil Elyon as Roman Sorkin, Iftach Ziv and Lorenzo Brown did the damage early and often for the yellow-and-blue. Prior to the contest, Guy Pnini was honored by the club for setting the all-time appearance mark in Israeli league action having played in 512 games.

Sorkin led the way with 17 points, Ziv added 16 points and 7 assists while Brown chipped in with 11 points in the win. Itay Moskovits paced Galil with 19 points and Lotan Amsalem scored 14 points in the loss.

“It was a good game from us,” Oded Katash said. “We were focused and played defense well. The second half we may have had less energy but we dished out 30 assists and we had less turnovers in the second half.”

“I’m disappointed, but so much in the score but we didn’t compete,” Barak Peleg said. “That really concerns me. There wasn’t the belief that we could win the game. We don’t match up against Maccabi at any position and this is not our ‘league’. I just hope that this loss won’t influence the club going forward.”

Jarell Martin looked back at the win, “It’s really big for us and the victory will carry us with positive momentum in the double week, we know how important these games are against the Turkish teams. We started off playing hard from the jump and came out to play strong which we wanted to do.”

Itay Moskovits also reflected on the game, “We didn’t come in prepared enough and the national team window hurt us a bit. We couldn’t bring what we wanted to do in this game and Maccabi is a very strong team. We had to chase after them from the get go and on their home court that’s going to be an issue.”

3’s were wild to start for Maccabi Tel Aviv as Lorenzo Brown, Jarell Martin and Jalen Adams all dialled up long distance, Roman Sorkin dominated the inside and Iftach Ziv went up the gut for a dunk at the buzzer to give the hosts a 28-16 lead after ten minutes of play. Lotan Amsalem and Itay Moskovits tried to keep Hapoel Galil Elyon close, but Adams, Sorkin, Su Braimoh and Rafi Menco who added a 3-point play kept the yellow-and-blue in front 50-38 at halftime.

Brown, Sorkin and Darrun Hilliard kept finding the basket for Oded Katash’s squad while Moskovits and Yahel Melamed countered for Barak Peleg’s team. But Maccabi remained in front 72-55 but the end of the third quarter as Ziv, John Dibartolomeo, Jake Cohen and Guy Pnini all went from deep in the final frame to sew up the easy win.

Kiryat Ata stunned Nes Ziona 78-75 as Diante Garrett broke a deadlock as time wound down to give the hosts the win to move further away from the relegation zone. The visitors jumped out to an early lead thanks to Tyler Bey and Shaq Buchanan to head into halftime with a 49-39 lead. However, Juvonte Reddic, Amin Stevens and Chavaughn Lewis all scored to pull even while Garrett found the winner to take the hard earned victory. Nes Ziona’s star guard DJ Cooper had an altercation with head coach Elad Hasin with 2.7 seconds left in the game, that led to the player being sent to the lockerroom prior to the end of the contest.

Reddic led the way with 21 points, Garrett and Stevens each scored 16 points and Lewis added 15 points in the win. Bey paced Nes Ziona with 23 points and Buchanan had 10 points in the loss.