Maccabi Tel Aviv crushed Nes Ziona 98-75 as they swept their quarterfinal series 3-0 and will now await the winner of the Bnei Herzliya had Hapoel Holon series which sits at 2-1 for the purples. Bryce Brown got off to a fast start while Ricky Lindo also scored for Nes Ziona but Tamir Blatt, Trevion Williams and Jimmy Clark along with Levi Randolph sent Maccabi Tel Aviv into halftime with a 48-40 advantage. Roman Sorkin and Rokas Jokubaitis began to score to begin the second half as Williams joined in soon thereafter while Jake Cohen who together with John Dibartolomeo celebrated 500 games with the club, started to fill the basket as the yellow-and-blue closed out the victory in style.

Williams scored 18 points, Randolph added 15 points and Cohen scored 11 points in the win. Brown scored 24 points while Lindo and Jake Van Tubbergen each put in 10 points in the loss.

“I’m happy that we did what we needed to and we advanced to the semifinals,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash began. “We controlled the series and Nes Ziona deserves a lot of credit as they had a very good season and they caused us some issues at the beginning of games. But ultimately the depth that we had decided this series. I hope that we can become more consistent in some of the things we are doing as we head into the quarterfinals. I also want to recognize Jake and John for playing 500 games with the club they are incredible people and deserve everything in the world.”

“Maccabi is a very strong and deep team,” Nes Ziona head coach Amit Sherf began. “They are a team that is very tight and has very good momentum. We tried the best that we could and we made a change in this game with our roster but we couldn’t stand up the way we wanted to.”

Jake Cohen reflected on having played 500 contests with the club, “I’m privileged to be at this club for a long time and to share it with some great people. It’s not just the championships that I cherish but also the hard times and nothing encapsulates that more than the the last two years. To share the night with John was really cool, because he’s my brother in so many ways and he is a great friend. To have my wife and children there to share the moment is speedily, not many can have that. I want to say thanks.”

Bryce Brown looked back at the series and the season, “I feel like we had a chance in every game, we out ourselves in good position and came out strung but it was the depth, they were able to keep guys fresh and they pull away. A team as deep as Maccabi is hard to withstand their energy, they have a crazy rotation. At in point of the game is as defeated, it was a hell of a season and Nes Ziona really helped me establish goals that I never thought of being the leading scorer was never in my minds Nes Ziona gave me the chance to play open and everyone believed in me.”