Maccabi Tel Aviv to duel with Hapoel Jerusalem in best-of-3

For the first time in Israel Premier League Basketball history, all four quarterfinal series ended in 3-0 sweeps as Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Jerusalem, Ironi Kiryat Ata and Hapoel Tel Aviv advanced to the semifinals, where a pair of best-of-3 series await.

Maccabi Tel Aviv crushed Ness Ziona 105-64 to sweep their best-of-5 quarterfinal series 3-0 and punch its ticket to the semifinals, where it will tip-off against old nemesis Hapoel Jerusalem.

Without head coach Oded Katash on the sidelines due to an illness, assistant coach Josep Berrocal had no problems as the yellow-and-blue grabbed a 19-13 lead after the first quarter and salted the game away for all intents and purposes with a 37-15 second period to cruise to the victory.

Prior to the game, a special ceremony was held for those fans who have lost their lives in the ongoing war against Hamas while four parents of Maccabi fans who made the ultimate sacrifice spoke on the court.

Rafi Menco and Roman Sorkin each scored 17 points, John DiBartolomeo added 16 points while Bonzie Colson scored 14 points and Antonius Cleveland dropped 13 points for Maccabi in the win. Jerome Meyinsse paced visiting Ness Ziona with 20 points in the loss.

“The conclusion is what I said to the players - the more the coaches can help the players, the more the players can help the coaches,” said Berrocal about standing in for Katash. “Many things were good in this series and how we played. When the players want to play, it’s easy. Any tactics will work when they want to play.”

Hapoel Jerusalem sweeps Holon

“Unfortunately we didn’t play well, mainly with scoring,” Ness Ziona coach Meir Tapiro said after the game. “When you don’t score you move backwards and that’s what happened the last two games. Overall, on the other hand, I’m proud of our players with five wins to end the regular season. It’s not easy to win playing every two days. At the end of the day, we’re proud of making the playoffs. Next year we’ll come harder and hope it’ll be a good season.”

Meanwhile, Hapoel Jerusalem downed Hapoel Holon 93-75 to sweep their quarterfinal series and move into the semifinals and another date with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The Purples came out strong and surprised the hosts as Kevin Hervey and Shawn Dawson paced Amit Sherf’s team. But prior to his injury, Levi Randolph scored at ease while Chris Johnson and Speedy Smith helped Yonatan Alon’s squad to a 52-42 halftime advantage and never looked back as Yovel Zoosman made sure the hosts chalked up the win.

Johnson scored 16 points while JaCorey Williams and Zoosman each scored 15 points in the victory. Dawson and Hervey each scored 18 points for Holon in the loss.

“This was a tough series and Holon deserves a lot of credit for playing tough despite their injuries,” Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon said. “We can’t take anything for granted this season which has been tough both on and off the court and it was great to win a cup, but the campaign isn’t over. Now it’s a new game and new series against Maccabi Tel Aviv and what was is not relevant.”

“We knew that we could stay in the game as long as we stopped their run and we hit our 3-pointers,” Sherf said. “We tried to stop them near the end of the first half, but they made some key baskets and I didn’t have a timeout to use and they went on a quick run. From that point, down by 10, it was going to be difficult to come back.”Williams spoke about the victory.

“There was a lot of emotion coming into the game as we knew we could close it out. We started out flat and when we switched on defense, we were soft and were not putting much pressure on the ball. Coach got on us about that and we started pressuring the ball and did it with more energy and that’s why we won the game.”Netanel Artzi looked back at the series and the season as a whole.

“We gave our all here in this series and came very close, just a shot here and there that we missed that could have changed things. We were missing some players but we didn’t give up. This was a very difficult season, whether it was the trips abroad or just dealing with the events that occurred on October 7. But we can say that we were really close. The fans deserve a ton of credit as well.”

Elsewhere, Kiryat Ata stunned Maccabi Ramat Gan 74-72 in overtime to sweep their quarterfinal series and set up a semifinal clash against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Shmulik Brenner’s Ramat Gan controlled the game from the get-go as Jordan Cohen and Nuni Omot kept the hosts in front. But Kiryat Ata came back behind JJ Kaplan and James Batemon, who hit a pair of crucial free throws to tie the game up at 65-65 at the end of regulation to send the game into the extra session.

In overtime, Amin Stevens and Cohen traded baskets but an Akia Pruitt 3-pointer gave Kiryat Ata the lead for good.Batemon scored 23 points and Kaplan added 14 points in the win as Jordan Cohen scored 23 points and Adam Ariel chipped in with 13 points for Ramat Gan in defeat.

“I can’t really explain what happened here,” Sharon Avrahami said of his club’s upset win. “I know that we are the team with the smallest budget and I don’t know if any other team in the county has done what we did. For most of the season we played with only three import players. I’m so proud of everyone. Every game it was someone else who stepped up.”

Kaplan spoke about the keys to the series, “The trust, I know it sounds bad but when James Batemon and Guy Palatin went down it was next man up. We all want to see everyone succeed, I was on winning college teams. We had faith, we believed.”

Also, Hapoel Tel Aviv downed Hapoel Haifa 83-65 to sweep their quarterfinal series and move into the semifinals.Haifa took an early 19-17 lead after the opening 10 minutes as Gur Lavie and Dakarai Tucker led the way, but John Holland and Tyler Ennis caught fire for the hosts to head into halftime with a 55-36 lead.

Bar Timor started to score while Holland and Ennis continued to find the basket as Marcus Bingham and Alex Hamilton tried to keep the Carmel Reds in the game to no avail as Stefanos Dedas’s team moved into the semifinals where they will play Kiryat Ata.

Holland scored 20 points, Ennis added 17 points and Timor chipped in with 10 points in the win. Lavie scored 17 points while Bingham and Hamilton each scored 14 points for Haifa in the loss.

“We proved that we deserved to advance,” Dedas began. “We led by 20 points in every game and at certain points in this game we really played well on both sides of the ball. This is the playoffs and you need to win. The atmosphere was terrific and almost everyone who played contributed, not just in this game but the entire series.”Holland also spoke about the victory.

“Every matchup against another team is really against ourselves. We advanced to the next stage so if I play, I’ll play and if not I’ll cheer on my teammates, it’s all good. I want to be remembered as a champion.”