Maccabi Tel Aviv battled Hapoel Afula to a 87-75 win in a rough and tumble foul filled game at the newly renovated Afula arena. The yellow-and-blue grabbed an early lead with points from Jaylen Hoard and Roman Sorkin but an active Justyn Mutts and J’Covan Brown kept the hosts in hanging around at halftime, but down 44-35. Jalen Lecque cut into the lead but John Dibartolomeo hit his shots from deep to close out the contest.

Hoard scored 16 points, Dibartolomeo added 13 points and Sorkin put in 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to take the win. Mutts scored 21 points, Lecque put in 19 points and Sandy Cohen scored 12 points in the loss.

“It wasn’t a great game from us but we had some good defensive play,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash said. “We were able to make a couple of runs, the offensive rebound was what was key for us and we controlled the boards. We had some issues with foul trouble but ultimately came out on top.”

“It’s too bad that we struggled on the offensive rebound side of the ball,” Afula bench boss Ariel Beit Halachmi said. “We spoke about this all week long as being a key factor for this game. We didn’t play our best and if we hadn’t given up too many rebounds and if we would have hit our free throws we could have been closer in the game and perhaps even have won it.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv captain John Dibartolomeo talked about how he has picked up his game play of late, “It’s important for us to finish in first place and make sure that we have home court advantage in the playoffs which has been key for us the past couple do seasons. There are no excuses that we have despite our busy schedule and we have to be proud of that fact that we are in first place. We have to keep improving day by day.”

Eyal Harel summed up the game and playing back at their home arena for the first time this season, “We knew the importance of the game and we also knew that we could have played in the State Cup if we won. Maccabi was able to take way too many rebounds on the offensive side and that cost us. But it was great to be back at our home arena with a great crowd and it was very important for the city to have their team here.”

Levi Randolph from deep, Rokas Jokubaitis with a 3-point play and Tamir Blatt for a deuce got Maccabi Tel Aviv on the board, Justyn Mutts, Sandy Cohen and Jalen Lecque scored for Hapoel Afula to get the game underway, Roman Sorkin scored a pair with ease under the basket, Sandy Cohen drained a corner 3-ball, Mutts dunked and J’Covan Brown put in a floater over three defenders to give the hosts a 16-15 lead after ten minutes of play.

Rafi Menco opened the second quarter from downtown, Trevion Williams dialled up long distance, Lecque and Sorkin traded buckets, John Dibartolomeo went for a pair from deep, Randolph hit a pull up jumper while Williams sent a full court pass to Jaylen Hoard for an easy deuce. Brown swished one from downtown, Blatt fed Hoard for an alley-oop, Mutts and Brown teamed up for a bucket, Randolph drained a jumper over Omer Hamama to give the yellow-and-blue a 44-35 advantage at halftime.

Lecque and Jokubaitis traded layups to begin the third quarter, Lecque put in a 3-point play, Blatt went from deep, Mutts scored inside, Blatt again fed Hoard for a dunakroo as he flew in from the right, Lecque went from downtown but David DeJulius came back from the outside and inside to keep Oded Katash’s in front 63-55 after thirty minutes of action.

Williams got the fourth quarter going with a bucket in the paint, Brown hit a jumper, Menco went from deep, DeJulius cut into the paint for an uncontested layup, Eyal Harel scored at the other end, Sorkin dunked, JP Tokoto went in for a deuce, Dibartolomeo drew an unsportsmanlike foul hit his free throws and then drilled a triple, Lecque and Cohen each dialled up from long distance but so did Randolph to wrap up the game.

Hapoel Beer Sheva punched their ticket to the State Cup with a 74-60 win over Hapoel Galil Elyon. After a slow start to the game which saw Guni Izraeli’s team take a 33-23 lead at halftime, Rami Hadar squad mounted a second half comeback as Spencer Weisz, Ron Zipper and Cody Demps helped the southern reds take the lead and notch the win. Weisz scored 16 points, Demps put in 14 points and Zipper added 13 points in the win while Lucas Goldenberg scored 14 points in the loss.