Elitzur Netanya captured the Leumit State Cup by defeating Elitzur Shomron 71-53 in Hadera. In a packed Enerbox Arena, Netanya Captain Ariel Isaak paced the diamond city side in the first half while eventual MVP Ilay Dolinski kept Ruben Najberger’s squad in front the rest of the way to take home the trophy.

Dolinski scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Isaak added 14 points and Omer Poleg scored 9 points in the win while Ido Fleischer scored 19 points and Shachar Doron chipped in with 12 points in the loss.

Shachar Doron lit the scoreboard up for Elitzir Shomron to open up the game, while Ilay Dolinski and Ilay Shaul responded for Elitzur Netanya to give the diamond city squad a 16-13 lead after ten minutes of play. Ido Fleischer and Roi Bechar scored for Dror Cohen’s team, Ariel Isaak started scoring from the inside and outside while Imri Shavit, Shoham Gatt and Boris Bogoslavsky also found points to give Ruben Najberger’s squad a 36-26 advantage at halftime.

Isaak and Dolinski led off the third quarter from deep, Doron and Eyal Shulman did the same at the other end, Ori Cohen scored off his own rebound, Alon Drucker came back with a 4-point play but a pair of baskets by Omer Poleg kept Netanya in front 51-44 after thirty minutes of action.

Dolinski began the fourth quarter with points off the glass, Fleisher scored in the paint, Dolinski answered from deep, Gatt scored inside, Drucker tried to keep Shomron relevant with a 3-pointer, but a Shavit bucket and a Poleg triple wrapped up the Leumit State Cup for Netanya.

Netanya Head Coach Ruben Najberger talked about the State Cup victory, “First of all it’s amazing and great fun. There was a fun atmosphere here, two cool groups of fans and the younger guys and the slightly older ones played not only against each other and but together as well. Winning is fun, certainly winning a title. The feeling is fun.”

The game MVP Ilay Dolinski spoke about the keys to Netanya capturing the Cup, “I feel very good and I’m excited, but we won this as a team and it’s not about me. I’m glad I played well, but it’s really a team performance. This is a club that really goes with the young players and that’s not something to be taken for granted and I’m very happy to be here. We just have to keep going this direction. We increased the intensity, we worked very hard on defense, we do these things a lot in practice and I’m glad it went well in this game.””

Netanya captain Ariel Isaak spoke about winning the cup following the game, “It feels like the most fun in the world to win this title, I think I can get used to it. Wow, this is so much fun. I’m the happiest person in the world for Dolinski and he deserves the MVP award it the most. He didn’t steal it from me, he earned it honestly and really I’m the happiest in the world that it’s his. I think that I’m a player that’s perfect for winning teams. I’ll do everything for the team to win, even if it’s going to hurt my own personal stats, but I’m happy that in this game it was both of them came together.”

Shachar Doron looked back at the loss from his point of view, “Mainly the pace, the intensity, they were much better during most of the game. I don’t have anything more than that, they deserved.”