Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Holon 84-68 at Yad Eliyahu on Saturday night. The game was closely contested in the first half, with Holon taking a slim 36-33 into the main break. However, the Reds dominated the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter where they outscored the Purples 20-8 to secure the victory.<\/p>\n
Yam Madar (25 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block), Jonathan Motley (13 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists) and Tomer Ginat (12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists) led the scoring for Hapoel Tel Aviv, while Mike Davis (13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 6 steals) and Michale Kyser (12 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist) were Holon\u2019s top-scorer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed great resilience and teamwork in the second half,\u201d game MVP Yam Madar said after the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur defense was solid in the first half, but we couldn’t maintain the momentum,\u201d Davis said of the loss.<\/p>\n
Next up for the Reds will be a EuroCup quarterfinal single game elimination date against Turk Telekom in Samokov, Bulgaria as Dimitrios Itoudis\u2019s team will look to move into the best-of-3 semifinals where Valencia or Cluj would be waiting. <\/p>\n
On Thursday night, Hapoel Jerusalem recorded a 82-75 victory over Maccabi Ramat Gan at Zisman Arena.<\/p>\n
While Jerusalem led for most of the game after starting the game 11-3, they could not break away from Ramat Gan, with the home team even taking a brief lead in the final quarter. However, Jerusalem\u2019s Jared Harper and Khadeen Carrington were pivotal in the final moments, scoring 20 of the team’s 24 points in the last quarter.<\/p>\n
Harper (23 points, 1 rebound and 6 assists), Carrington (17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal), Justin Smith (10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals) and Yovel Zoosman (10 points, 2 assists and 2 steals) led the scoring for Jerusalem, while Adam Ariel (15 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist), Kendale McCullum (13 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists) and Amin Stevens (14 points, 6 rebounds) led the stats for Ramat Gan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy that we won,\u201d Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon said after the game. \u201cThank you to the League and to Ramat Gan, who agreed to bring the game forward for us [due to the EuroCup quarterfinal next week]. They worked for this and it\u2019s great for Israeli basketball to be managed so well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDisappointing,\u201d Ramat Gan coach Shmulik Brenner summed up the game. \u201cWe played well in the second half, but we didn\u2019t have enough confidence in the first quarter. We didn\u2019t play well enough later in the game, but we were there. We need to be better in the beginning and start games with the same energy and aggressiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA good win overall,\u201d Harper said after his MVP performance. \u201cLast time they beat us [86-87 in early January in Jerusalem], so it was good to come in and get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first quarter we gave them too much confidence and we didn\u2019t play well enough to beat Hapoel Jerusalem,\u201d Ramat Gan captain Ariel said. \u201cIn the second half we made adjustments. At the end, it came down to possessions. Harper and Kadim played well. We\u2019l get better and I hope that when we get there we will be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hapoel Jerusalem are now in their final preparations for their quarterfinal EuroCup clash against Gran Canaria in Belgrade on Tuesday (21:00 IST, 15:00 EDT).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where we wanted to get to, the knockout stage,\u201d Alon said. \u201cGran Canaria is a very deep team, they play very Spanish basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI played in Spain previously [for Valencia], so I\u2019ve played against Gran Canaria a lot,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThey were our rivals. They\u2019re a good team offensively and defensively \u2013 like Spanish teams. It comes down to how we play as a team. We fought hard for the 2 seed and had a bye for the first week of the playoffs. We\u2019ll take advantage and try to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Holon 84-68 at Yad Eliyahu on Saturday night. The game was closely contested in the first half, with Holon taking a slim 36-33 into the main break. However, the Reds dominated the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter where they outscored the Purples 20-8 to secure the victory. Yam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":135596,"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":[96,97],"class_list":["post-135594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-hapoel-jerusalem","tag-hapoel-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n