Maccabi Tel Aviv dropped Hapoel Galil Elyon 73-60 as Levi Randolph was unstoppable for the yellow-and-blue as they moved their record to 5-0 in the Israeli league. Oded Katash’s squad came out strong and grabbed an early 22-13 lead after the opening quarter as Levi Randolph scored from the inside and outside, Jaylen Hoard found points in the paint and Wenyen Gabriel put on an airshow for the fans. Rawle Alkins and Lennard Freeman tried to keep the visitors close but to no avail to chalk up the victory.

Randolph scored 18 points, Sorkin added 11 points and Dibartolomeo chipped in with 10 points in the win, Alkins scored 15 points, Freeman put in 14 points and Marcus Carr scored 12 points in the loss.

“We controlled the game but as we saw in other games we were good in the first half and had some issues in the second,” Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Oded Katash said. “We did have a good defensive game but we also have to give credit to Guni who had his players really cause us plenty of issues. We have to look at ourselves and the situation that we are in as we are tired and we are missing players. But all in all we won and I have to give Galil credit.”

“I’m happy with our defense and we reached our goals for this game,” Galil Elyon head coach Guni Izraeli said. “To keep Maccabi at 73 points is excellent but we had a tough time scoring, however, we also know we played a Euroleague team with size and physicality. We had our shots in the 4th quarter from Marcus Carr and Rawle Alkins but we could have done better and made some better decisions on offense late in the game. We know we could have cut the score down to 2-3 points but it was still at 8-10 and it was tough for me to see that.”

Lucas Goldenberg also reflected on the game, “It was a really tough game and it felt like a fight. To beat these types of teams on the road you have to play a perfect game. We did some good things but we missed some of the small details. We played really tough against a Euroleague team with elite players and held them to 73 points ad we will have to try and build on that for the future.”

Omer Mayer looked back on the win and as an 18-year old playing in the top league on a regular basis, “I think I could have defended a bit better and also played better on offense as well. As a team we had some good minutes on defense but still need to work on some things. This is what I wanted to do from a young age and I have goals that I want to reach but for now I’m enjoying the journey as we go along.”

Jaylen Hoard dunked as did Roman Sorkin who also scored from the outside for Maccabi Tel Aviv while Lennard Freeman, Marcus Carr and Tomer Asayag all found points for Hapoel Galil Elyon, Levi Randolph put in a layup and added a 3-point play, John Dibartolomeo put in a 4-point play, Rawle Alkins responded with a pair from deep but a massive dunk by Wenyen Gabriel gave the yellow-and-blue a 22-13 lead after ten minutes of play.

Alkins opened the scoring in the second quarter, Jasiel Rivero hit a jumper, Hoard added a basket, Randolph dropped a pair of triples, Rafi Menco hit one also as Alkins and Goldenberg tried to keep Guni Izraeli’s team close with a number of baskets but Oded Katash’s team went into halftime holding a 40-32 advantage.

Jokubaitis from the inside and Menco on outside got the third quarter underway, Freeman, Asayag and Carr countered, Randolph and Dibartolomeo went from downtown while Omer Mayer and Rivero each scored to keep Maccabi in front 63-49 after thirty minutes of action,

Carr and Mayer traded baskets to begin the fourth quarter, Dibartolomeo dialled up long distance, Freeman scored inside and Asayag found points as Maccabi went close to seven minutes without scoring until Menco hit a 3-pointer with under a minute left to polish off the game.