Hapoel Jerusalem defeated 81-58 Maccabi Ramat Gan as Khadeen Carrington and Jeremy Morgan scored at will to cruise to the game one win in their best-of-five quarterfinal series. The reds jumped out to a quick lead thanks to points from Khadeen Carrington while Kendale McCullum kept the visitors afloat but more baskets from Carrington along with Jared Harper propelled the hosts to a 36-26 advantage into halftime. Austin Wiley began to find the basket while Jeremy Morgan and Nimrod Levi kept scoring in bunches to polish off the win.

Just prior to tipoff, Jared Harper was presented with the EuroCup Most Valuable Player Award by club owner Matan Adelson who also welcomed the United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

Carrington scored 17 points, Morgan added 15 points and Smith put in 12 points in the win. McCullum scored 15 points and Crawford chipped in with 12 points in the loss.

“We were very consistent defensively and that made the difference,” Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon said. “I’m sure that Ramat Gan will come in and try to get us out of our game and they will be much more aggressive so we will have to match that.”

“This was not a good game from us and we didn’t execute properly,” Ramat Gan bench boss Shmulik Brenner said. “It wasn’t good enough. As for Keyshawn Feazell and Noam Dovrat, it’s not fair to judge them as they are new players and brought in for a playoff series and it’s a challenge to get them into the swing of things.”

Jeremy Morgan reflected on the win, “I don’t think it was an easy game, they played well and made shots we made more and we stuck to the game plan and every ball matters. It feels good to play well and help the team.”

Drew Crawford looked back at the loss, “Turnovers hurt us a lot and for them to get so many offensive rebounds set the tone. Our half-court defense wasn’t bad in the first half but they got easy points and in the third quarter we let them get free and that hurt us. We have to focus on taking the care of the ball and doing better.”

Jeremy Morgan and Jared Harper went from deep for Hapoel Jerusalem, KeyShawn Feazell with a 3-point play and Isaiah Miles with a triple answered for Maccabi Ramat Gan to get the game underway, Khadeen Carrington scored a trio of baskets, Roi Huber sent Justin Smith for an alley-oop and Harper added a layup to give the reds a 18-10 lead after ten minutes of play.

Kendale McCullum stripped Harper and went in for a layup to begin the second quarter, Morgan and Miles traded 3-pointers, Huber went from deep, McCullum knocked down a jumper and added a deuce, Nimrod Levi dialled up long distance and Carrington continued to score, while Smith also put in points to keep Yonatan Alon’s squad ahead 36-26 at halftime.

Austin Wiley started to score as the third quarter got off to a fast start, Morgan and Yovel Zoosman went from downtown, Noam Dovrat and McCullum tried to keep Shmulik Brenner’s team close, while Crawford and Yonatan Atias kept cutting down the gap but triples by Morgan and Levi bumped the lead right back up to 62-44 after thirty minutes of action.

Levi and Morgan kept causing all kinds of damage as they opened the final frame with a flurry, Crawford scored from the inside and outside but more baskets by Levi and Morgan along with points from Huber, Smith, Carrington and Zoosman to take game one of the series in style.