The Israel basketball league championship series is set as Hapoel Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv will tip off for Holy Land hoops supremacy.
The best-of-3 finals will begin on Monday night at Yad Eliyahu in Tel Aviv while Game 2 will shift to the Jerusalem Pais Arena on Thursday, with Game 3 (if necessary) slated for Sunday, June 15 back in Tel Aviv.
Late Tuesday night, Hapoel Jerusalem defeated 86-83 Hapoel Tel Aviv in their decisive Game 3 as Jared Harper nailed a 3-pointer with one second remaining to snatch the victory and punch the Capital Reds’ ticket to the finals with a 2-1 series win.
Tel Aviv opened up the game with a flurry of baskets as Antonio Blakeney had the hot hand early on, while Yam Madar and Johnathan Motley also scored. Jerusalem’s Chris Johnson countered as did Harper from the line to keep Jerusalem close. Marcus Foster started to fill the basket for Tel Aviv, however Yovel Zoosman caught fire for Jerusalem and Austin Wiley scored to tie the game up at 43-43 at halftime.
Dimitrios Itoudis’s EuroCup champs came out in the second half scorching from deep as Tomer Ginat, Ish Wainright, Blakeney, Madar and Foster all scored from beyond the arc to bump the host’s lead up to double-digits. But Roi Huber, Johnson and Harper cut down the gap while Zoosman’s 3-point play tied the game up at 81-81 with just over a minute to play.
Huber hit a jumper, and then Madar scored on a layup to tie, but Harper drilled a triple with time close to expiring to take the win and advance to the final against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Harper scored 19 points, Zoosman added 16 points and Huber scored 13 points in the win. Blakeney scored 21 points, Foster put in 19 points and Motley scored 13 points in the loss.
“We got back into the game when we tried to find the right lineup,” Hapoel Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon said. “We were down 16 points already in this series so we knew that we could do it. We believed that we could win and we used our defense to get back into the game. As for the last play, we set up to make sure Harper would get the ball in his hands and I told him to go ahead and enjoy yourself.”
Itoudis was mostly gracious in defeat.
“I want to congratulate Jerusalem and it was a very interesting series,” said the Hapoel Tel Aviv bench boss. “The way the game went we could have grabbed the win and it would have been well deserved, but they came back with a big 3-pointer and they moved on. We had the best record in the regular season – on the court – but had a tougher series to play because of the point we had taken off, which cost us.”
'High level game with a lot of momentum'
Jerusalem captain Zoosman spoke about the win.
“This was a very high level game with a lot of momentum which was great for Israeli basketball. We beat a very talented team and in a three-game series anything can happen. We got ourselves into a huge hole by the end of the third quarter but we were able to dig out of it, taking it step by step.”
Ginat also looked back at the game from Tel Aviv’s perspective.
“Congratulations to Jerusalem, it was a bad loss for us and we came short at the end and they made the big plays. We have to remember we won the EuroCup and we will feel better soon. We will come back better next season.”In the other semifinal series, Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Holon 85-73 to sweep 2-0 into the finals as it will look to win its third straight championship.
Mike Davis and Jaylen Hoard filled the basket early and often for each of their respective teams, Jimmy Clark along with Roman Sorkin scored for the yellow-and-blue as Shachar Amir and Dakarai Tucker countered for the Purples, but Tamir Blatt from deep gave Maccabi a 44-37 lead at halftime.
Davis kept pouring in points while Idan Zalmanson also scored in bunches for Holon.
Sorkin was a beast in the paint, and Blatt was on from deep and while Shachar Amir and Justin Alston tried to keep Holon close, Maccabi was too strong with Jimmy Clark and Levi Randolph also helping close out the victory.
Hoard scored 16 points, Sorkin added 15 points while Clark and Blatt each scored 14 points in the win. Davis scored 23 points as Alston and Amir each scored 12 points for Holon in the loss.
“I’m not taking it for granted that we were able to win in Holon,” Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Oded Katash said. “We were able to rebound well and we also caused them to commit some crucial turnovers and those are the things that won the game.”
“I think we were a step behind,” Hapoel Holon’s Guy Kaplan said. “There was a stage where we thought we could turn the game around but we ran out of gas.”
Blatt also commented after the game.
“It feels amazing. We didn’t have a chance to play in front of a crowd much this season because of the flights and it’s fun to have such amazing support. We’re looking forward to it in the final as well. Now we have to prepare to bring home another championship.”