Maccabi Ramat Gan hosts Hapoel Tel Aviv in a super December 25th basketball matchup on Wednesday night at Zisman Hall (21:50) that was postponed from the opening week of the season due to the ongoing war. Shmulik Brenner’s club advanced to the Basketball Champions League Play In portion of the competition just last week and will be raring to go against Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad who are off this week in EuroCup play.

While Ramat Gan is only 5-4 in Israeli league play, the hosts are extremely dangerous and can create all kinds of issues for the Reds who enter the contest with a 9-1 record which is good for 4th place. The two sides faced each other back in September in the Winner Cup quarterfinals in a game that saw Ramat Gan win in overtime 109-102 as Roi Huber hit a game tying triple with a second left on the clock to send the clash into the extra session all knotted up at 88-88. From there Ramat Gan captain Adam Ariel helped Brenner’s side to the victory, but of course much has changed in the past few months.

Ahead of the game, Brenner along with veteran big man Amin Stevens spoke about the upcoming clash, “We are entering yet another stage of the season. Just as we had a decisive game last week in order to advance to the Play In portion of the BCL, we are now approaching the last few games of the first round in the local league, which will determine if we will take part in the Israel State Cup or not. This is of course a competition that we want to be a part of.

“We began the week with an important victory over Hapoel Holon and we expect, in front of our home crowd, to continue the team’s positive play. We expect a particularly tough game against an excellent team like Hapoel Tel Aviv, but it is mainly important for us to focus on ourselves and take the next steps forward as a team.”

Stevens added, “In order for us to succeed against Hapoel Tel Aviv, it’s important that we continue the momentum from our last two big victories. I feel like we are a team that is hard to beat at home, with our fans and we like to maintain our home court advantage. We need as many fans as possible in this game so that we can use their energy and continue our fine play of late.”

Dimitrios Itoudis, Hapoel’s coach who attended a recent Ramat Gan game against Gilboa Galil spoke about what he expects from the upcoming matchup, “Ramat Gan has demonstrated a high level of competitiveness in both the Israeli league and the BCL. They have good chemistry between the players and they also have a good coach. This is a game that we are expecting to be demanding and we are, unfortunately, dealing with player injuries. We are highly motivated to compete at the highest level, to present quality basketball and to progress in every practice and every game.”

Joe Ragland who played in his first Israeli league game just this past weekend and will be registered for the game along with Marcus Foster, Antonio Blakeney, Bruno Caboclo and Jonathan Motley added, “This game is important for us to continue our progress and growth, to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves and to maintain consistency as a team. Ramat Gan is a strong team and we will have to play with our strength.”

The Reds will be without Ish Wainright, Marcus Bingham and Patrick Beverley who will not dress while over at Ramat Gan their four imports will be Amin Stevens, Isaiah Miles, Kendale McCullum and Roberto Gallinat.