Elitzur Ramle will take on newly-promoted Hapoel Lev Jerusalem in the Women’s State Cup Final this Thursday night at Beit Maccabi in Rishon Letzion (18:30 IST / 11:30 EST) after each team won their Semi-Final on Monday night at Beit Maccabi. Ramle defeated AS Ramat Hasharon 80-68, while Jerusalem won a tight contest over Hapoel Rishon Letzion 81-77.

Rishon Letzion scored the first 8 points of the game against Jerusalem through some hot shooting from Camille Zimmerman and Eden Zipel, leading the team to a commanding 27-13 lead over Hapoel Jerusalem after 10 minutes. They were then restricted to only 9 points in the second quarter, with 8 points from Breanna Richardson and 7 points from Stasha Carey for the quarter helping Jerusalem reduce Rishon Letzion’s lead at halftime to 36-31. Jerusalem continued with the momentum after the main break, scoring 50-41 in the back half of the game to go through to the title game on Thursday.

Alyssa Baron (24 points including 4/9 from beyond the arc, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 7 assists and 1 block), Carey (23 points, 12 rebounds and 1 steal) and Richardson (16 points, 12 rebounds and 2 assists) led the scoring for Jerusalem, while Zipel (18 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 5 assists and 1 block), Dorian Dahan (16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 assists and 2 block) and Zimmerman (13 points, 7 rebounds ,2 steals, 1 assist and 1 block) led the scoring for Rishon Letzion.

“It was a tough game but the players deserve a ton of credit,” Jerusalem coach Limor Peleg said. “We advanced to the final but we still haven’t completed the mission.”

The game MVP Baron also spoke following the win: “This is our first year and we made it to the final. There’s not much to say, we are proud of everyone for working together to get to this point. We were a little bit a asleep in the first quarter but we woke up quickly. They [Rishon Letzion] are a good team and it wouldn’t have ended so nicely had we not woken up. We were able to box out and run on them a bit and we took the win.”

The first half was fairly even in the earlier Semi-Final, with Ramle ahead of Ramat Hasharon 40-36 after 20 minutes. A 3-pointer from Ramat Hasharon captain Ofir Kesten Raz at the start of the third quarter reduced the deficit to only 1 point, however, Ramle then scored 25-13 for the remainder of the quarter, with Jessica Jackson and Jennie Simms leading the way with 9 and 8 points respectively. That gave Ramle a large gap which Ramat Hasharon could not bridge, with Ramle booking their ticket to the Final.

Jackson (26 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists), Simms (20 points, 11 rebounds, 1 steal and 7 assists) and captain Eden Rotberg (16 points including 3/7 from long range, 4 rebounds, 1 steal and 4 assists) led the scoring for Ramle, while Chelsea Mitchell (26 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists) and Shae Kelley (18 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists) were in double-figures for Ramat Hasharon.