Kiryat Ata drubbed Hapoel Beer Sheva 92-72 in a game that was never close as five players finished in double digits for Sharon Avrahami\u2019s team. The hosts jumped out to a 49-35 lead at halftime as Amin Stevens and Raz Adam along with James Batemon and Ben Saraf spurred Kiryat Ata to the win.<\/p>\n
Stevens scored 19 points, Adam added 15 points, Batemon chipped in with 13 points while Saraf scored points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds in the win. Grant Sherfield and Egor Koulechov scored 13 points a piece in the loss. <\/p>\n
“First of all, Ben came into a situation that is not so simple with all the pressure and focus on him,\u201d Kiryat Ata head coach Sharon Avrahami said about Ben Saraf. We are working with him to improve the things he needs to and the things that he can do and is already capable of, that cannot be taken away. I really believe in him otherwise I wouldn’t have brought him in to be one of the starters at the age of 17. There are things to improve on and we are constantly looking at what he can improve. One is the shooting, the second is the decision-making which was much better today. I’m very happy with him, but it’s a process and there will be ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saraf also spoke about his performance, “The truth is that I don’t take too much into account about the importance of my age here at this moment. This is reflected by the players and the club who are supportive so I don’t feel young at all on the court. I do my job as a basketball player just like everyone else.”<\/p>\n
On the key to victory, \u201cI think we played very well as a team. When we played Ramat Gan, we did less as a team and didn\u2019t share the ball as much while against Afula we were better in that aspect. This game was much better and we want to improve and continue in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the importance of feeling that the club allows him to make mistakes, \u201cIt comes from the team backing me up. I work hard in practice with the players and they really support me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was the decision to come to Kiryat Ata the correct one? “Absolutely, I believe so. They give everyone here what they need to succeed and the staff works really hard with us all week long, so I think this is the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the fact that he was “disappointed” because he did not reach the triple-double this time around, “I hope that will happen in the future,. I don’t know exactly what went on in the game just yet as I have to go back and take a look but hopefully I\u2019ll be able to do down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kiryat Ata drubbed Hapoel Beer Sheva 92-72 in a game that was never close as five players finished in double digits for Sharon Avrahami\u2019s team. The hosts jumped out to a 49-35 lead at halftime as Amin Stevens and Raz Adam along with James Batemon and Ben Saraf spurred Kiryat Ata to the win. Stevens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":94985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5674,183],"class_list":["post-100204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-ben-saraf","tag-kiryat-ata","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n