Maccabi Tel Aviv took the Israeli Classico with a 112-105 in overtime over Hapoel Jerusalem as Roman Sorkin starred down the stretch to hand the yellow-and-blue the win. The reds took control of the game from the outset as Justin Smith and Jared Harper filled the basket early on while Lonnie Walker and Oshae Brissett countered for Maccabi to snatch a slim 53-52 lead at the half.

Brissett kept finding points as did Jimmy Clark in the second half, but Harper kept hitting his shots from the outside to take a lead late in the game. However, Sorkin’s first field goal of the matchup took the game into overtime where he scored from deep while Clark also put in points to close out the win. Along with the win came some concerning news as Lonnie Walker dislocated his finger in overtime and will be out 2-3 weeks.

Walker scored 25 points, Brissett added 22 points and Clark put in 19 points in the win while Harper scored 26 points and Smith scored 23 points in the loss.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash reflected on the win, “I’m very happy that we won no these types of games you see some great plays by great players with a tremendous amount of quality from both sides. There is also a bit of luck involved as well. There were plenty of matchups also in this game, but in overtime we went with more pick and roll where Roman Sorkin was able to make an impact. This was an excellent game played at a very high level in a great competitive league.”

Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon looked back at the loss, “The end of the game was decided by some terrific individual plays and that’s how games go sometimes in overtime. We are missing Austin Wiley who is an excellent player and also Yovel Zoosman so it’s hard to judge Jerusalem as is with the team that we are playing with now. I hope that we can get to the playoffs with home court advantage despite the recent losses.”

Jimmy Clark looks back at the victory, “It was a game of runs and there were some things that we had to clean up, but it was good for the guys to get through some adversity and take the win. Roman was big for us when Lonnie went down with an injury, but he stepped up and he was really big for us down the stretch. We want to take it one day at a time and by focusing on the scout for the next game that comes up will keep up ready and in the present.”

Justin Smith spoke about the defeat, “It was a hard fought game for both sides and we were right there until the end. We needed to make the little plays to take the win and we had made some mistakes down the stretch. We have to be more careful.”

Lonnie Walker scored Maccabi Tel Aviv’s first 16 points as the yellow-and-blue took a 16-14 lead over Hapoel Jerusalem midway through the opening frame, Jared Harper, Justin Smith and Tzuf Ben Moshe who was making his debut responded for the reds helped the hosts to a 31-29 after ten minutes of play. Harper continued to score but Oshae Brissett and Jimmy Clark began to fill the basket for Maccabi, Smith and Ben Moshe countered at the other end while Jaylen Hoard and Walker scored as well to give Oded Katash’s squad a 53-52 lead at halftime.

Nimrod Levi went from deep while Brissett put down a monstrous dunk to get the third quarter off and running, Brissett drained a pair from deep, John Dibartolomeo and Khadeen Carrington traded triples as Maccabi stayed in front 69-66 after thirty minutes of action. Smith scored a pair of baskets to begin the fourth quarter, Harper went from downtown while so did Tamir Blatt, Anthony Lamb went for a pair from the outside, Harper drilled home two more 3-pointers, Clark came back with a deuce as did Roman Sorkin to send the game into overtime.

In the extra session, Sorkin went from deep, Clark put in a floater, Harper came back from downtown, Sorkin nailed a corner 3-ball, Dmytro Skapintsev and Clark traded baskets and then the latter hit a turnaround jumper to ice the game and hand the win to Maccabi.

Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion got by Hapoel Holon 68-62 as Amin Stevens starred the wine city squad as they outlasted the purples who played with a six-man rotation. Stevens scored 22 points as Gabe Devo and DJ Burns each scored 11 points in the win, Adama Sanogo scored 15 points and Kevion Taylor put in 14 points in the loss.

Hapoel Galil Elyon downed Hapoel Beer Sheva 92-78 as the Galilee side saw their Israeli contingent score 52 points as Shachar Amir put in a career high 22 points for Idan Avshalom’s team in the win. Along with Shachar, Raz Adam scored 13 points and Yahel Melamed added 12 points for Galil while Damian Duff scored 24 points to pace Beer Sheva.