Bnei Herzliya clipped Hapoel Holon 96-93 as John Meeks drained a game winning triple to knot up their quarterfinal series at 2-2 and send it to a do or die game five with the winner playing Maccabi Tel Aviv in the semifinal series. Markel Johnson had the hot hand early as Elijah Stewart also scored with ease, but Mike Davis and a Netanel Artzi matched them shot for shot to send the purples into halftime with a 53-51 advantage.

Chinanu Onuaku and Idan Zalmanson took control of the proceedings in the third quarter as Johnson and Davis continued to fill the basket giving the visitors the lead but Iftach Ziv knotted the game up at 93-93 with under a half a minute remaining. That allowed Meeks to perform his heroics and hit the game winner to set up a winner take all game five back in Herzliya.

Johnson scored 28 points, Meeks and Stewart added 20 points a piece while Onuaku scored 14 points in the win. Davis scored 25 points, Ziv put in 15 points and DJ Copper scored 13 points in the loss.

“This was a sweet in that keeps us in the series,” Bnei Herzliya Head Coach Yehu Orland began. “The game didn’t win the series but kept us in it and it could have gone either way. We made one play that was better than him with that last second 3-pointer, I can’t say we controlled the game because Holon was very much on control. This series is very important for Israeli basketball because the other three series ended in 3-0 sweeps and Holon was close to doing the same.”

“This was a carbon copy of game two,” Hapoel Holon Head Coach Guy Kaplan began. “Defensively we were not great and we played too much one-on-one and individual defense. We had played better defense during the season and kept teams under 75 points which we weren’t able to do here. We ended up losing and now we have to play a game five.”

John Meeks spoke about the win, “Back and forth competitive playoff game and I’m very grateful my team came out on top. We’re resilient and we all show up to work every day. We show up and do our best as we get the new players we have into the system. As for the winning basket, I got scored on on the last play so I was upset. We had come up with the play for the winning shot the night before and I had the ball in my hands and I had to make a play which I did.”

Idan Zalamanson reflected on the game, “We are disappointed and we really blew it as the game was in our hands, but we are already focusing on game five, we know what we need to do and we won’t dwell on this too much. Our backs will be against the wall but we will come in ready to go to get the job done.”

DJ Cooper scored from the inside and outside for Hapoel Holon, Markel Johnson put in points as did Chinanu Onuaku in the paint for Bnei Herzliya, Mike Davis and Shachar Amir scored for the purples while Elijah Stewart did the same for the visitors, but buckets from Netanel Artzi helped the hosts to a 28-23 lead after ten minutes of play.

Frederic Bourdillon buried a corner 3-ball to begin the second quarter, Davis came back with a deuce and Iftach Ziv scored as well, but triples from Stewart and Meeks drew Yehu Orland’s team even at 34-34 midway through the second quarter. Cooper went from deep, Idan Zalmanson scored a trio of baskets, Stewart came back from downtown and Josh Hawley added points as Artzi responded from the inside and outside to keep Holon ahead 53-51 at halftime.

Stewart and Davis opened up the third quarter from deep, Onuaku and Zalmanson added baskets on the inside, Johnson and Davis traded layups, Meeks went from deep, Davis drained another 3-pointer, Kyser put down a massive alleyoop dunk from Ziv who put in his own acrobatic bucket but a Bourdillon triple kept Herzliya close but down 78-74 after thirty minutes of action.

Davis began the fourth quarter with points, Meeks went from deep, Cooper threaded the needle to Justin Alston for a bucket, Onuaku and Johnson scored, Cooper came in for a layup, Johnson countered and hit his free throws after a Ziv unsportsmanlike foul, Davis dialled up long distance and Ziv tied the game up at 93-93 with 27.1 seconds left in regulation but Meeks drilled home a triple with seconds remaining to take the win.