Hapoel Holon will ready to face Aliaga Petkimspor in the first game of their Champions League Play In best-of-3 series on Tuesday (19:00 Israel time) in Baku, Azerbaijan due to the security situation for Israelis and Israeli teams in Turkey. The purples will look to advance to the Round of 16 Group Stage but that will be no easy task as Guy Goodes’s team is still a work in progress with some players having come in and others moving out.

Star forward Marcus Bingham headed to Hapoel Tel Aviv but is now out of action due to a heart issue from a virus while Israeli guard Niv Misgav departed the club as well for Hapoel Gilboa Galil. Brendan Adams and Mike Davis Jr. joined Holon but the former is now out with an injury, however, Jalen Adams just returned to action after having been out with an injury himself.

In addition, Iftach Ziv looks to have turned things around the past few games after a tough start to the season in which the guard looked like a shadow of the player that had starred in the Israeli league not long ago. The 29-year old is back in Israel after having featured with Granada and then Saint Quentin last season where he had mixed results in what was his first time abroad following two seasons with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Between 2019-2021 Ziv played with Hapoel Gilboa Galil where he took his team by the collar and dragged them to the 2021 Finals where they succumbed to Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-1 in the best-of-3 series. It looked like the future was going to be all roses for the stud guard but his time in yellow-and-blue didn’t turn out the way he would have liked and looked overmatched at times while his foray in Europe also wasn’t as stellar as he would have wanted it to be.

Now back in Israel, the Haifa native has a chance to get his career back on track, a career that he has worked so hard on from his first days as a youth player at Maccabi Haifa where he was named as the Youth League MVP. Ziv honed his craft at a number of clubs including Herzliya, Ashdod and Nahariya before breaking out of his shell with Gilboa.

Thus far this season, Ziv is averaging just 8.7 points in the BCL and 10.7 in the Israeli league which is not the numbers that he had envisioned with Holon. His play was most certainly also not how his head coach Guy Goodes had envisioned as well and the bench boss was no doubt going to need the best version of Ziv after Misgav had departed and the two had a tough time playing together.

With Holon down by double digits up at Gan Ner against Ziv’s former team Gilboa Galil and against his former teammate in Misgav, the Israeli international put on a second half display right from the movies as he scored, scored and scored without stopping and led the purples all the way back to a stunning victory. Ziv scored 23 points going 7/8 from 2 and 2/5 from 3 in that game and then turned the trick again with 15 points (6/7 from 2) in a win over Kiryat Ata.

All in all it was a good week for Ziv and Holon as they notched a pair of wins as they now have a huge challenge in from of them. Aliaga Petkimspor are currently in 11th place with a 5-8 record in the Turkish league, but can create issue for the purples despite both teams playing their home games outside of the respective countries, as Holon will “host” game 2 in Hungary.

With that, Goodes is looking to see his floor general help guide the team to the promised land.

“Ziv’s play is very important for us and we are thrilled about how he has raised his level of play the last couple of weeks,” the Holon bench boss said. “He has been able to really take things on for the team. Guard Brendan Adams can come back in a week but it will still take him some time. Things really came together for Iftach and I hope these things will continue and it’s not just these two games. I want to see consistency and there is an effort from our guys right now who are giving it their all.”

Forward Yotam Hanochi also spoke about how crucial Ziv is for the team as they head into a critical period, “We somewhat started the season anew in November when we had some players coming in and others going. Iftach can do a lot of good things for us and even when he wasn’t playing well we supported him and backed him up. We need his best version now because every game is important in both the BCL and the Israali league. We are working hard for this and to win the upcoming games.”

As for the game itself Goodes is aware that it’s not just going to one player or another that will win this series but a total team effort, “This is a very important and challenging game against a very good team that leads the BCL in 3-point percentage and is also very talented offensively. This will be a very big challenge for our defense and in order to win the game we all will have to make an individual and team effort in this regard.”

Big man Idan Zalmanson added his thoughts as to what Holon will need to do as well, “We are coming into perhaps our most important game since the beginning of the season. We have won our last two league games but we will have to play much better to successfully get out of the series and qualify for the Top 16. We must start the game well and not let the Turkish squad dictate because if they will then it will be difficult to win. We have the capabilities, defensively and offensively and we will do everything to bring our best to the game.”