Kiryat Ata downed Hapoel Afula 88-76 as Liam O’Reilly starred for the visitors in the shorthanded win for the visitors. Eldad Bentov’s squad came out with fire in their eyes and plenty of fight despite having a short rotation at the bench boss’s disposal.

Chris Smith dominated the first half while Jalen Lecque tried to keep Ariel Beit Halachmi’s team in the game, however Liam O’Reilly scored at will from deep with a half dozen 3-pointers and Silvio De Sousa controlled the paint in the second half to secure the victory.

O’Reilly scored 24 points, Smith added 19 points and 14 rebounds while De Sousa scored 19 points in the win. Lecque scored 23 points, J’Covan Brown put in 15 points and JP Tokoto scored 14 points in the loss.

Jalen Lecque and JP Tokoto scored for Hapoel Afula, Karam Mashour responded while Chris Smith put down a monster dunk and Liam O’Reilly drained a pair of 3-pointers to give Kiryat Ata a 19-14 lead after ten minutes of play. Smith and O’Reilly went from downtown, J’Covan Brown, Eyal Harel and Lecque all hit triples, Silvio De Sousa countered by scoring freely in the paint and Yuval Levin drained a corner 3-ball at the halftime buzzer to give the visitors a 47-35 advantage.

De Sousa scored a pair inside to begin the third quarter but Lecque responded from the outside and with a dunk, Justyn Mutts put in 5 straight points, Tokoto put in points in the paint, O’Reilly scored two triples, Lecque and Levin traded triples, Yariv Amiram bumped up the lead, O’Reilly dropped a 4-point play but Omer Hamama pulled Afula to within 72-63 after a wild period.

Brown scored a pair of baskets to start off the fourth quarter, De Sousa put in a pair of baskets, O’Reilly scored with ease, Lecque dunked, but Karam Mashour and Levin closed out the game with points to seal the victory.