Maccabi Tel Aviv downed Hapoel Holon 96-88 in a throughly entertaining matchup that saw the yellow-and-blue go 17/38 from beyond the arc to take the win. With the win, Oded Katash’s squad stays at the top of the standings as they now ready to play Real Madrid in the final game of the Euroleague’s regular season and which will then determine who they will face in the quarterfinals of the continental competition.
The yellow-and-blue came flying out of the gate with points from Wade Baldwin and Jake Cohen but Hayden Dalton and Joe Ragland helped Guy Goodes’s team take a 51-48 lead at halftime.

Bonzie Colson – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Maccabi began the third quarter as they had done the first with plenty of points from beyond the arc as both Bonzie Colson and Jarell Martin couldn’t miss but once again Dalton, Ragland and Chris Johnson were able to even up the score at 76-76 midway through the final frame. However, Martin nailed three triples and John Dibartolomeo also scored from downtown while then hitting six free throws to ice the game and give the hosts the win.

Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
“The most important thing is that we won,” Katash said after the game. “But we didn’t have the right energy and we didn’t defend properly, there were things that I didn’t like. Credit to Holon as to how they played and they won the battle of the boards. The team may be tired but we have to be able to look better than we did in this game.”

Guy Goodes – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
“The game can be split up into quarters,” Goodes began. “The first and the third where we gave up a ton of points and the second and the fourth where we played very well. But overall we gave it way too many 3-pointers and we did just half the job in this game. It’s tough to play with only 7 rotation players against 11 and our guys really battled.”

Bonzie Colson – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
The game MVP Bonzie Colson reflected on the game as well as his perfect shooting night, “It feels good and I was watching some film with our assistant coach Noam Levy. I am always trying to be better and more ready to shoot and to be more consistent. Getting more reps in is good and getting them and practicing here at Yad Eliyahu is good for all of us.”

Hayden Dalton – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Hayden Dalton also spoke about the contest, “We fought really hard but Maccabi scored 19 3-pointers and shot at 50% so it’s tough to win when a team is hitting like that. Add to that a couple of turnovers which hurt us as well.”

Wade Baldwin – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
It was raining 3’s for Maccabi Tel Aviv as Wade Baldwin, Jake Cohen and Bonzie Colson all dialled up long distance to begin the game, Javin Delaurier was busy inside the paint for Hapoel Holon while Shawn Dawson scored as well, but Baldwin and John Dibartolomeo scored to put the yellow-and-blue in front 30-18 after ten minutes of play.

Hayden Dalton – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Hayden Dalton and Chris Johnson began cutting into the Maccabi lead to start of the second quarter, Colson and Josh Nebo kept the hosts ahead but points from Manny Harris and Dalton trimmed the advantage to 39-35 with five minutes remaining in the first half.

Hayden Dalton and Joe Ragland – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Joe Ragland knocked down a pair from deep, Harris hit a midrange jumper, Lorenzo Brown came back with a triple and a deuce but Harris rung up a 3-point play to give the visitors a 51-48 lead at halftime.

Josh Nebo – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
The third quarter began just as the first one did with 3-pointers aplenty as Martin hit a pair, while Colson and Brown did the same to quickly turn the score around as Maccabi went up 64-53 midway through the period. Harris tried to stop the bleeding but Nebo dunked, Menco scored while Dibartolomeo and Iftach Ziv both went from downtown to give Oded Katash’s squad a 76-66 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Bonzie Colson celebrates – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Dalton, Ragland and Johnson started to find the basket for Holon once again to tie the game up at 76-76 with 6:48 left in the fourth quarter. Martin nailed a trio from deep, Colson dunked, Ragland and Dalton quickly responded, Dibartolomeo nailed a corner 3-ball and hit his free throws to close out the win.
Hapoel Tel Aviv got by Hapoel Galil Elyon 88-84 in a hard fought battle that went neck and neck all the way into the dying minutes of the fourth quarter but big baskets by Jordan McRae and Xavier Munford down the stretch closed out the game for the Reds. Bryce Washington and Deishuan Booker helped give Barak Peleg’s a slim 40-38 lead at halftime but McRae, Munford and Bar Timor helped rally Danny Franco’s squad to the victory.
McRae led the way with 26 points, Timor and Munford each added 14 points each in the win. Washington scored 26 points, Booker scored 20 points and Nimrod Levi scored 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the loss.

Jordan McRae – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
“I’m happy that we won as it keeps us close to the top of the standings, but other than that there are very few things that I can take into the upcoming games,” Reds coach Danny Franco said.
“It’s nice that we were able to give a good fight which is always what we want to do,” a disappointed Galil Elyon coach Barak Peleg commented. “We were in the game and we came back when we were struggling but we have a number of critical turnovers that really hurt us. I’m really upset about this loss.”
Game MVP Jordan McRae spoke about the win, “Everyone is playing their best basketball and they played hard but we did what we had to do. As for J’Covan Brown not playing, every time a guy is down we all have to play hard.”
Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Hapoel Haifa 104-98 as Egor Koulechov scored the go ahead points down the stretch to give the southern reds the win. In a back and forth affair down south, Ben Moore, David Efiyani and Koulechov paced Lior Lubin’s team but Anthony Hickey, Amit Simhon and Jarrod Jones helped tie the game up at 98-98 with 18 seconds to go.
However, a bucket by Koulechov and points by Moore helped seal the deal as time wound down to give the hosts the win. The defeat for Sharon Drucker’s team was their 10th in a row in Israeli league play 14th overall across all competitions.
Moore led the way with 24 points while Koulechov and Efiyani each scored 17 points in the victory. Jones and Hickey each scored 20 points in the loss.
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