Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan defeated Hapoel Galil Elion 89-77 at home on Monday night, in a game which was dedicated to former Ramat Gan player, Lior Lubin z”l, who passed away after a short battle with cancer last week. Ramat Gan now moves to 8-3 in second place in the standings behind Hapoel Tel Aviv, while Galil Elion falls even further below .500 with a 4-7 record.

Prior to the game a somber and emotional ceremony was held in Lubin’s memory, which left few dry eyes in the stadium, in which members of Lubin’s high school team – which in 1995 finished in third place in the world school championships – as well as his father Yair Lubin and others who were on the journey with Lubin, participated.

With that backdrop, it’s no surprise that it was a slow start to the game, with it taking more than three minutes for Isaiah Miles to put the first points on the board for either team with a layup on a fast break. Kendale McCullum and Benaya Srur followed with a two-point jumper and a putback respectively, giving Ramat Gan a 6-0 lead after nearly 5 minutes of play, causing Galil Elion coach Barak Peleg to call his first timeout of the game. Coming out of the timeout Ramat Gan’s lead was extended on the back of a steal and layup from Alexander Hamilton to stretch the lead out even further. It wasn’t until after five and a half minutes into the game when Miron Ruina received a nice dime from James Feldeine to slam the ball in to finally put Galil Elion on the board. Feldeine followed up with a 3-pointer and it was clear that Galil Elion was not going to let the game get away from them so early. While both teams made errant passes, neither team was able to capitalize on their defensive advantages. Although Srur had two embarrassing misses from the free throw line towards the end of the quarter – the second of which was an air ball – a 3-pointer from Jordan Cohen (for a total of 7 first-quarter points) to end the first quarter gave Ramat Gan a 22-15 lead after 10 minutes.

Cohen didn’t show any signs of slowing down in the second quarter, with great passes to Karam Mashor and Srur on consecutive plays extending Ramat Gan’s lead to double-digits early in the second quarter at 26-15. Free throws to Lotan Amsalem for his first points of the game Omar Silverio brought the deficit back to 7 points. The free throws seemed to help Amsalem get into the game, pulling down a powerful offensive rebound and put back just a minute later. While they continued to make stops on defensive, Galil Elion couldn’t capitalize, with McCullum drawing offensive fouls on consecutive Galil Elion plays to keep the gap between the teams. But 3-pointers to Amsalem and Roi Huber a couple of minutes later brought the game back to a one-possession game, with Ramat Gan leading 31-29. Although Galil Elion took the lead with under two minutes remaining in the half, a basket to JP Tokoto and a 3-pointer to captain Adam Ariel helped Ramat Gan regain the lead and after the teams traded baskets to end the term, Ramat Gan took a 46-41 lead into the main break.

The teams traded baskets at the beginning of the third quarter, but when Mashour scored a 3-pointer, immediately followed by a steal and layup to McCullum, the lead was stretched back out to 11 points at 62-51 with two and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter, forcing Peleg to call a timeout to try to get his team back into the right mindset to prevent the game from slipping away. Like his timeout in the first quarter, it only resulted in Ramat Gan extending its lead, with a 3-pointer to Cohen followed by another 2/2 from the stripe. An Amsalem basket just before the end of the third quarter kept the lead at 13 points, Ramat Gan up 66-53 going into the final frame.

Galil Elion refused to roll over in the last quarter. The teams traded baskets early, but then a 3-pointer to Amsalem after three and a half minutes of play brought the lead back to 10 points at 72-62 and a turnover on the next play caused Ramat Gan coach Shmulik Brener to then utilize his timeout to get his team back on track. However out of the timeout it was again Amsalem with a basket, bringing the deficit to single-digits again and Ramat Gan leading 72-64. Galil Elion threatened to creep closer, but Ramat Gan continued to response, including through a 3-pointer from Miles to stretch the lead out again to 10 points at 77-67 with four minutes remaining in regulation. When Ariel was fouled on a 3-point shot that dropped, giving him the opportunity of a 4-point play which he couldn’t capitalize on, but Ramat Gan had an 82-70 lead with a little over two minutes to play. A layup from Huber brought the margin back to 10 points, but a cute pass from Hamilton to Tokoto followed by a 3-point play from Ariel stretched the lead out 87-72 with a minute left in the game. At that point, Peleg took out Feldeine, Amsalem and Huber, with it being clear that the game was out of reach.

Cohen (28 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals), McCullum (14 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal) and Tokoto (10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists) were in double-figures for the home team, while Amsalem (20 points, 13 rebounds and 1 block), Huber (18 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal) and Feldeine (11 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals) were in double-figures for the visitors.

After the game, the coaches made it clear that the result was secondary to the man to whom the game was dedicated.

“We got the news from the TV,” Brener said of learning of Lubin’s death. “It was a tragic story. I played against him when he was in Ramat Gan and I was in Galil Elion. I remember being excited before the game, playing against Lior Lubin. I only played 7 minutes, but it was exciting to play against him. He also coached me. But more than anything, he was a good person. You meet lots of people in the basketball world and Lior really was a mensch – he was a good person. I think that his death has really stung the basketball world. It’s another sad thing to happen this year.”

“Today it was difficult – the sadness regarding Lior,” Peleg said. “In the end, when I remember what I learned from him when I was his assistant coach for three years, everything else seems meaningless – win or loss – but this was a week in which there was a lot of sadness and emotion. We honored Lior with this game, he was close to so many people. We had a good connection. I loved him and I assume he loved me too.”

Of the game itself, Peleg seemed to concede that the stresses of the season for the team – which has not been able to play or live at home because of the war and constant rocket-fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon – have made it difficult to find momentum this season.

“We weren’t really into the game,” Peleg said. “We felt it the last two weeks we didn’t play. We’ve gotten used to it, but at the same time we haven’t been able to really get used to it. Players come and go and we need to move around a lot. It’s the reality of this season and we are going with it.”

Peleg only had praise for the game’s MVP.

“Cohen is having a great season and he’s playing great basketball,” Peleg said. “I have nothing bad to say about him, because he schooled us today. But for us, if we don’t come with the effort – we did want to win, but we couldn’t execute. The game was short and slow, not to our flow. And Ramat Gan is a good enough team to exploit that.”

“We wanted to bring him in a couple of years ago, but he made an error and went to play with Ashdod instead,” Brener said of Cohen, who only joined Ramat Gan this season. “This [how he has been playing] is what I thought he could be. He can be better – he is someone who can improve – and this is what we are aiming to do with him. He’s impressive.”

Brener also had positive things to say about McCullum, who played his second game of the season following his return to the club after he left upon the outbreak of the war with injury concerns.

“You’re seeing around 20% of Kendale McCullum right now,” Brener said. “We know what he can do – both as a creator and as defensive player. What he’s been through, it was not a simple period. He can really move the team forward and today was one step forward. As a player, he thinks and has he uses his intelligence in the locker room. He’ll get better. He has helped us a lot, but he’ll get better.”

Cohen, who recorded a career-high in points, gave credit to his teammates after the win.

“I didn’t try to rush anything,” Cohen said of the game. “It’s pretty easy with this team. We share the ball pretty well and we’re well-coached. It helps me play my game freely. Over time, I’ve become more confident and more comfortable. I love the team – the coach, the management, my teammates – and they help me.”

“They’re not a weak team by any means,” Cohen said of their opponents. “They have close games and coach [Brener] has stressed that and that they’re hungry for a win. It makes it difficult to play against teams like that. But any night for us it could be anyone. Adam [Ariel], JP [Tokoto], Kendale [McCullum], Isaiah [Myles] – anyone. We have 7, 8, 9, 10 players who could go off any night.”

Ramat Gan next meet Hapoel Beer Sheva in Beer Sheva next Tuesday evening, while Galil Elion will travel to Nes Ziona next Monday night.

In other Israeli basketball news, Hapoel Haifa defeated Hapoel Afula 88-82 in overtime as Jon Davis drilled home a critical triple as time wound down to help the Carmel Reds to the win. In what was a back and forth game throughout the entire 45 minutes, the hosts came out on top as Amit Simhon and Davis found he basket down the stretch to take home the victory.

Mike McGuirl led the way with 22 points, Simhon added 21 points, Davis put in 18 points and dished out 9 assists in the win. Cassius Stanley with 22 points and Marcellus Earlington with 20 points paced Afula in the loss.  

“I don’t know if it’s pressure but it was great to finally win at home,” Hapoel Haifa coach Guy Goodes said. “We hadn’t done that up until now. The guys knew that we could win but we are still very far away from where I want to be and there is a lot to improve and work on especially on the defensive side of the game.”

“We were naive and made some mistakes in a game that we could have won,” Afula coach Roi Perel said. “The word that can describe the entire game is being too naive. I expect more from myself and we have to look to how we played and how we executed on the court.”

Hapoel Jerusalem got by Hapoel Beer Sheva 79-74 as the capital city reds mounted a second half comeback to take the win. The southerners grabbed an early lead and went into halftime with a 38-32 lead but a red hot Levi Randolph helped lift Ilias Kantzouris’s squad to the victory with a tremendous second half of play. 

Randolph scored 22 points and Chris Johnson added 14 points in the win while Jakeenan Gant scored 16 points and Egor Koulechov chipped in with 14 points in the loss.

“It was a hard game for us physically and mentally,” Kantzouris said. “But I give big credit to the players who managed in the second half through their defense to win another game on the road. This is the 4th game on the road since I arrived and it has been busy. We were able to impose our rhythm through our defense in the second half.”