Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Beer Sheva 81-69 as Roman Sorkin and Jaylen Hoard starred for the yellow-and-blue who jumped out to a 53-36 lead at halftime and never looked back to record the victory. Both Sorkin and Hoard scored 16 points each in the win while TJ Bickerstaff paced the visitors with 13 points in the loss.

“I don’t know how much we will celebrate,” Maccabi Head Coach Oded Katash began. “Beer Sheva replaced a lot of players and they’re not in the form they were in before the war. Rami’s teams always make things difficult. The second half was uglier in the way we played. Overall, relatively speaking, we managed to spread the minutes around and that’s not something to take for granted.”

Beer Sheva Head Coach Rami Hadar summarized the loss, “I do like the way we played. Despite the low shooting percentages, we still stayed alive in the game. I respect the players for the effort and now we move on to the next game. The team is always under control and always puts in the effort but I don’t see us as playoff contenders.”

Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion downed Hapoel HaEmek 103-98 in overtime as Amin Stevens and Qua Grant scored in the extra session to defeat the visitors. DJ Burns and Gabe Devo both scored 20 points a piece in the win while Niv Misgav scored 19 points and Max Brooks added 18 points in the loss.