Maccabi Tel Aviv took care of Kiryat Ata 116-89 as the yellow-and-blue captain knocked down a career high seven 3-pointers to help his squad to the win. Oded Katash’s squad jumped out to quick lead as Dibartolomeo set the tone with a trio of triples to get the game underway.

From there on in it was all Maccabi as TJ Leaf, Armando Bacot and Bonzie Colson all filled the basket while Shane Hunter made his debut as well finishing in double digits. Dibartolomeo scored 21 points, Leaf added 17 points and Bacot scored 16 points in the win, while Holland Woods scored 18 points in the loss.

Maccabi Head Coach Oded Katash reflected on the win, “I’m happy that we won and now we did play this game. We pretty much had the game decided by the end of the first half which allowed us to split up the minutes. We came into the game without some of our guards which concerned me but we didn’t really have an issue and we were able to win.”

Kiryat Ata Head Coach Eldad Bentov talked about the loss, “We practiced hard this week, but we didn’t come out in the way we needed to. We didn’t foul and weren’t prepared but after the initial shock we really tried to get back into the game. We just weren’t there mentally and once we got into a hole it was tough to get out of it.”

Captain John Dibartolomeo spoke about the win and his career high in 3-pointers, “It was a good game for us and I’m happy with our approach, good energy and focus. It’s not easy after a tough double week but were happy that we can come in and begin the game well which isn’t something to take for granted. I enjoy playing in this arena and I hope that we will be able to play more games here.”

John Dibartolomeo drained a trio of triples for Maccabi Tel Aviv while Roman Sorkin and Jimmy Clark also added points while at the other end Maxim Filonenko and Holland Woods countered for Kiryat Ata but points from Armando Bacot, TJ Leaf and Keaton Wallace gave the hosts a 36-23 lead after ten minutes of play. Wallace, Oshae Brissett and Bonzie Colson went from deep, Shane Hunter and Clark added points, while Bacot put down a reverse dunk to give the yellow-and-blue a 65-31 advantage at halftime.

Clark, Brissett, Leaf and DiBartolomeo continued the onslaught from deep to get the third quarter underway, Leaf kept piling in the points, Yuval Levin started to score to try and make the game respectable but Colson drained another pair of baskets to stay in front 90-56 after thirty minutes. Woods and David Green scored for Eldad Bentov’s team, Bacot responded right back and DiBartolomeo went from deep to close out the contest.