Maccabi Tel Aviv dunked Kiryat Ata 102-90 as the duo of Roman Sorkin and Jake Cohen paced the yellow-and blue to the victory. Roman Sorkin and Jake Cohen scored for Maccabi Tel Aviv as Chris Smith and Liam O’Reilly countered for Kiryat Ata but baskets by Trevion Williams gave the yellow-and-blue a 56-41 lead at halftime. Smith and Silvio De Sousa kept cutting into the lead over the final two frames but Cohen responded as did Sorkin and Tamir Blatt to finish off the win.

Sorkin and Cohen each scored 17 points and Blatt added 14 points in the win. Smith scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, O’Reilly scored 18 points and De Sousa chipped in with 15 points in the loss.

“We could have played better but we did what we needed to,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash said. “Kiryat Ata pressed us a lot but we played correctly and we split the minutes up. I’m content with the result. We are still making changes and there are injuries which influences how we play.”

“We were there and a couple of times we came back and had the momentum,” Kiryat Ata Head Coach Eldad Bentov. “We battled but it wasn’t enough for 40 minutes, If it would have been we would have had a better chance but it’s difficult too beat Maccabi Tel Aviv. Now we have to move on and look ahead.”

Hapoel Holon mounted a second half comeback to take out Hapoel Gilboa Galil 83-79 as Iftach Ziv was a one-man wrecking crew over the course of the final twenty minutes to give the purples the victory.

Ish El-Amin, Elijah Childs, Niv Misgav and Ben Moore all scored early and often for Hapoel Gilboa Galil while Elijah Mitrou-Long and Michale Kyser tried to keep Hapoel Holon in the game but the hosts took a 49-33 advantage into halftime. Mitrou-Long, Netanel Artzi and Iftach Ziv started filling the basket to cut down the lead to just 3-points, 59-56 after thirty minutes while Ben Moore and Gur Lavie tried to keep the hosts in front, however, Kyser and above all Ziv kept scoring at will to take the comeback win.

Ziv scored 23 points, Mitrou-Long added 18 points, Artzi out in 15 points and Kyser scored 14 points in the win. Moore scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Lavie scored 17 points and El-Amin chipped in with 14 points in the loss.

“We were asleep and it was a long afternoon to get here,” Holon coach Guy Goodes said. “We just weren’t there and we had no energy plus we didn’t move the ball. At halftime I told them we have to move they ball and bring the entry and I am happy that is what we did. We ended up wining the second half 50-30 and they deserve a lot of credit. It’s December and there are injuries and illnesses but we showed character to take this win.”

“It’s a good question as to what happened to us in the second half,” Gilboa Galil bench boss Sharon Avrahami said. “We started the second half well but then we started turning over the ball and we saw the lead just disappear like last game. We allowed them to run when we coughed up the ball and they scored a lot of easy baskets. We needed to know how to make stops.”

Nes Ziona held on to down Bnei Herzliya 86-84 as Ryan Turell made the key steal as time wound down to keep the visitors in front and take the victory. Darnell Edge, Bryce Brown and Ryan Turell all hit their shots from deep for Nes Ziona as Xavier Sneed and Jimmy Clark tried to keep Bnei Herzliya close, but Amit Sherf’s squad grabbed a 56-34 lead at halftime. Ricky Lindo started to score inside, but Sneed and Chris Silva began to cut the gap as did Jimmy Clark, however, Turell stole the ball and purposely split his free throws as time ran out to hand Nes Ziona the win.

Brown scored 21 points, Edge added 13 points and Turell put in 11 points in the win. Clark scored 20 points, Silva added 17 points and Sneed scored 16 points in the loss.