Kiryat Ata defeated Hapoel Afula 90-73 as Ben Saraf came up big in the second half to help Sharon Avrahami’s squad take the win.

Amin Stevens, Akia Pruitt and Ben Saraf got busy for Kiryat Ata while Juston Briggs countered for Hapoel Afula but the hosts grabbed a 23-15 lead after ten minutes of play. Raz Adam and James Batemon started to find the bucket for the hosts while Lucas Goldenberg and Tomer Assayag countered but Stevens scored a 3-point play to head into halftime and keep Kiryat Ata’s advantage at 45-32.

Marcellus Earlington and Spencer Weisz started to cut down the lead, but Ben Saraf’s hot hand from the inside and outside kept Sharon Avrahami’s team in front 62-58 after thirty minutes of action. Tomer Porat started to hit his shots while Saraf kept adding points a plenty as the hosts closed out the win.

“Our Israelis are our base but any player can come in and make a difference,” Avrahami said after his team’s win. “Ben Saraf has all of my confidence and he’s not here as a favor but he’s here because he deserves it. Even in the minutes he wasn’t that good he still knew what to do on the court.”

“We needed to play better from the start of the game,” Afula coach Roi Perel said. “The game started to slip away from us and we weren’t able to find our way back.”

Stevens scored 21 points and grabbed 8 rebonds, Saraf added 20 points and 9 assists while Asia Pruitt scored 17 points in the win. Briggs scored 15 points and took down 12 rebounds as Earlington scored 13 points and Goldenberg chipped in with 12 points in the loss.

Hapoel Holon downed Hapoel Beer Sheva 94-79 as all 7 players who featured for the purples scored in double digits to get back onto the winning track following their loss to Hapoel Jerusalem this past Sunday night.

CJ Harris, Netanel Artzi and Yotam Hanochi all made their impact felt for Hapoel Holon over the course of the first half as Jarvis Williams and JaKeenan Gant responded for Hapoel Beer Sheva, but the purples went into halftime holding a 43-33 advantage. Egor Koulechov and Gant tried to cut into the lead but Tajhere McCall, Justin Smith and Niv Misgav scored and Harris dunked to keep Amit Sherf’s team ahead as they took the 15-point win.

Harris scored 16 points while Hanochi and Artzi each added 15 points in the win. Gant scored 19 points and Koulechov chipped in with 18 points in the loss.