Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised past Nes Ziona 111-80 as Gur Lavy starred and Lonnie Walker put on a show as he made his return to the court after having been out injured for the past couple of months. Walker began the game on fire nailing four 3-pointers to set the tone while Lavy was unstoppable scoring a career high as Oded Katash’s team took the 31-point victory.

Lavy scored 31 points, Walker added 18 points and John Dibartolomeo scored 14 points in the win while Desi Rodriguez scored 27 points as Yuri Collins and Bryce Brown both scored 14 points in the loss.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash spoke about the win, “We reached a peak after the cup win and I was worried how we would begin the game but Lonnie controlled the pace right off the bat. We played very well defensively and we then started to fall off a bit, but we got back to ourselves and finished with a win. It begins with John Dibartolomeo, Will Rayman and the performance that Gur Lavy had.”

Nes Ziona bench boss Meir Tapiro commented on the defeat, “Lonnie Walker came back and hit his 3’s including some very tough ones. It’s good question where my players were, we had a game plan which didn’t work out and he hit some very tough 3’s. That gave them confidence and then everyone in the crowd got into it which made it difficult for us. I’m trying to find the players who can play defense as well and can do the best for the team to help us reach our goals.”

The game MVP Gur Lavy spoke about the win and Lonnie Walker’s return, “We were excited to come in here after having won the cup and we played well and now we have to get ready for Thursday. I’m still new here and we had a bunch of people with the team who made sure we were ready for this game. We all missed Lonnie and he showed us what he can do which we all knew and we were ready for him to just go off and help us to the win.”

Desi Rodriguez looked back on the loss, “Great Maccabi team. They are playing great basketball and we wanted to battle and get a win but it went in another direction. They are a great team and we wanted to now enjoy the break and regroup and finish. We were there that first quarter and Walker made some tough shots and he wanted to be aggressive. He wanted to play well and we didn’t have an answer for him. We have to respect him.”

Lonnie Walker was red hot out of the gate with a quartet of triples and a deuce while Gur Lavy, Oshae Brissett and John Dibartolomeo all went from downtown as Desi Rodriguez responded but Maccabi grabbed a 36-17 lead after ten minutes of play. Tamir Blatt went from deep to begin the second quarter, Lavy continued to score at will, Rodríguez and Bryce Brown came back with points, Jimmy Clark put in a pair of baskets and Marcio Santos scored as well to give the yellow-and-blue a 61-42 advantage at halftime.

Udoka Azubuike started to score to start the third quarter, Bryce Brown hit a pair from beyond the arc, Clark and Brissett responded from deep while Walker put in a deuce as the buzzer sounded to keep Oded Katash’s team in the drivers seat 83-57 after thirty minutes of action. Yuri Collins and Lavy traded baskets to begin the final frame, while the latter went from deep and then added a 3-point play as Will Rayman, Oren Sahar and Dibartolomeo all dialled up long distance to close out the win.

Hapoel Jerusalem downed Maccabi Ramat Gan 97-87 as a strong third quarter put the game away for the reds. Austin Wiley scored 20 points and Jared Harper put in 19 points in the win while Adam Ariel scored 22 points and Ronaldo Segu added 17 points in the loss.

Bnei Herzliya dunked Hapoel Galil Elyon 105-89 as Daeshon Francis, who didn’t play in the State Cup final, starred for Yehu Orland’s team to help lead a half a dozen players in double digits to the victory. Francis scored 17 points and Noah Carter added 16 points in the win while Sam Alajiki scored 25 points and Zahir Porter put in 22 points in the loss.