Maccabi Tel Aviv captured the 2025/26 Youth Israel State Cup with a 85-61 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv. The yellow-and-blue team were dominant in the paint shooting 65% as Nitai Dudu was named the MVP with 26 points. After a close first half, Maccabi began to pull away by the end of the third quarter and into the final frame to secure their first title of the season.

Nitai Dudu started the game well, but a trio of 3-pointers by Hapoel kept them close as the yellow-and-blue grabbed a slim 24-22 leads after the opening period. Yotam Haleprin’s team pulled ahead 36-29 in the second quarter as Dudu kept scoring, but Harel Bar-On and Shay Dotan cut the deficit slightly before Keren Ashkenazi had the final word of the half to give Maccabi a 44-37 advantage at halftime.

Ashkenazi and Dudu opened the scoring in the third quarter while Amit Gretzman buried a pair of triples for the reds but Rom Stoller and Tamir Gold helped Maccabi head into the fourth quarter with a 65-54 lead. The yellow-and-blue began the last period with a 9–0 run to close out the game and hand Maccabi the Cup.

Dudu scored 26 points while Stoller and Ashkenazi put in 13 points each in the win. Gretzman scored 15 points, Kareem Kab added 13 points and Dotan scored 9 points in the loss.

Maccabi Coach Yotam Halperin spoke about the win, “First of all, I think this was a very strong defensive dominance. We came with one goal and that was to stop them in the areas where we knew Hapoel are good, whether it was offensive rebounds or getting back on defense with their physicality. We took away many of the things they do well on the defensive side and offensively I’m happy we managed to reach that number of points against Hapoel. Hapoel is a good team; the second half decided the game.”

Shenhav Dahan, the coach Hapoel, said, “I think we are one of the youngest teams in the league, with a large percentage of the minutes played by 11th-grade players and younger. I think this was a good lesson for all of us, for every athlete who wants to improve and become a basketball player in the future, a lesson we will learn from.”