Hapoel mounted a late game comeback that saw Xavier Munford score all of his 17 points to grab a 89-86 win over Maccabi to take the Tel Aviv Derby. The yellow-and-blue had been in the drivers seat throughout the game as Wade Baldwin paced the visitors, but the Reds who were down by double digits midway through the fourth quarter saw Munford start to score at will while Will Cummings and Kyle Alexander found critical baskets as well to snatch the 3-point win.

Cummings led the way with 18 points as Munford and Alexander added 17 points each in the win. Baldwin scored 21 points, Bonzie Colson added 17 points and Roman Sorkin chipped in with 11 points in the loss.

“This was one of our poorest game in a while,” Hapoel Tel Aviv head coach Danny Franco began. “We defended decently but there were times where there were a lack of focus in al aspects of the game. Let’s be honest, both teams didn’t play a great game and we came out as the winners. We were down by 9 points with five minutes to go and I told the guys that this game was there for the taking by just grabbing another rebound, don’t turnover the ball and make good decisions. We didn’t need much more than that and at the end of the day I’m happy it went our way.”

“This was a game of runs,” Maccabi bench boss Oded Katash said. “We began the game well and we had some good minutes at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter but then we gave up the lead which was painful. We lost our heads a bit and we didn’t have good body language. There was a lot of frustration and that is not our way and not the way to win this type of game.”

The game MVP Xavier Munford looked back at the win and how he raised his game in the last quarter to take the victory, “Early in get game Is aw how they has been playing me defensively and I had to get rid of the ball. Towards the end of the game I wanted to be more aggressive and do what the other team was going to give me along with creating for the team. With all of the injuries we all have to pick it up and it’s got to be a team effort. Playing here gave us the energy and it’s a good feeling to play back in front of the crowd.

Bonzie Colson spoke about the loss from his post of view, “It’s very frustrating, we got to figure out how as team to go back to the principles. We got to fight adversity as a team, we got to stop this pattern of losing leads. Xavier is a talented scorer and it’s a team effort to stop him, at some point we lost track of him on some possessions and he exposed us. We got to come together as a team and stay together, it’s what adjustments we need to do to stop this. It’s not our identity and we need to know what to do on both sides of the court to stop the runs.”

Wade Baldwin started the game off on fire as he helped Maccabi Tel Aviv to a quick 16-5 lead midway through the first quarter, but Dez Wells got busy for Hapoel Tel Aviv however, points from Bonzie Colson gave the yellow-and-blue a 18-10 lead after ten minutes of action.

Kyle Alexander and Wells started to trim the lead down but Baldwin started dishing out assists to Roman Sorkin for a pair of buckets to bump the lead up to 31-23. Braian Angola and Will Cummings came back with points while Tamir Blatt played facilitator for Sorkin and Jasiel Rivero but Alexander closed the gap to 40-38 at halftime.

Bar Timor and Alexander traded baskets with John Dibartolomeo and Bonzie Colson but Wells drew Danny Franco’s team even at 50-50, while points from Baldwin and Rivero kept Oded Katash’s squad in front 60-57 after thirty minutes of action.

Rivero, Blatt and Colon gave Maccabi a double-digit lead, Alexander and Cummings responded as Xavier Munford caught fire to give the Reds an 85-84 lead down the stretch as Baldwin tried to get the yellow-and-back in front but it was not to be as Hapoel closed out the win.