Maccabi Urban Ramat Gan - Hapoel Afula 72:75 (0-1 to Maccabi Urban Ramat Gan in the series)
A hot game in Zisman ends in a close victory for Maccabi Urbani Ramat Gan, which maintains its home side and rises to a 0-1 advantage in the series.
Shmulik Brenner's team did not enter the game well, but as it progressed it knew how to create stops on defense and stop the Afula players on defense.
Maccabi Urbani Ramat Gan already led 63:70, about a minute and a half to go, but Tomer Porat with two big threes brought his team back into the game and the board showed 72:74, 17 seconds to go.
The home team missed from the line twice and Afula got a chance to win but missed twice from the three.
The game opened with excessive aggression from both teams and the board showed 6: 5 to the visitors after 5 minutes.
The locals had a hard time producing points in color and found themselves 6:12 behind after 7 points by Afula.
Shmulik Brenner's team answered with 6 points in a row in color and the first quarter ended in 14:12 for the visitors.
Maccabi Urban Ramat Gan opened the third quarter with three threes in a row on the way to a 17:23 advantage.
Hapoel Afula's first field goal came 5 minutes into the second quarter, but on the other hand Dakrai Tucker answered with two threes in a row - 26:35.
Caron Dshields locked the half with a handsome basket that set a 32:37 mark for the locals.
The third quarter opened with threes by Guy Dotan and Anton Shotbin, but the advantage remained with the locals thanks to Ben Altit - 40:43.
Caron Dshields buried 5 points in a row, but Elijah Hirsch gave the visitors a three-pointer and 4 consecutive points in color - 49:58, 2 minutes to the end of the third quarter.
Shmulik Brenner's team maintained the advantage and led 51:58 after three quarters.
Alon Sapir suffered a fifth offense early in the final quarter and the game continued to be close.
Three minutes before the end, Tomer Porat buried a big three and reduced it to 62:65, but here Dakrai Tucker woke up and with 4 points in a row set 63:70, a minute and a half to go.
Tomer Porat buried two great threes and shrank to 72:74, 17 seconds to go.
The locals missed twice from the line and Afula got a great chance to win but twice missed outside the arc.
Many for Maccabi Urbani Ramat Gan:
Dakrai Tucker (7 rebounds) 18 points, Shahar Amir 13 points, Elijah Hirsch 11 points, Uriel Trotsky and Muriel Lotati (6 assists) 9 points.
Hapoel Afula had many:
Caron Shields (8/20 for two) 24 points, Tomer Porat 13 points, Guy Dotan (6 rebounds, 6 assists) 10 points, Roi Natzia and Michael Holyfield 7 points each.
Irony "Rain" Nahariya - Maccabi "Next Urban" Haifa 65:89
For one half it seemed that Maccabi 'Next Urban' Haifa could make it difficult for the regular season champion, but the purple second half exploded and won 26-47.
Shai Saglovitch's teammates provided a great defense and scored 47 percent of the three on the way to victory in the first game of the quarterfinals series.
Nahariya had five players in double figures, while on the other side the Greens received a significant contribution from only three players.
On Saturday, the series arrives in Haifa to try to compare.
The Greens started better and with 7 points from Josh Freund they went up to an 11: 5 advantage.
The Purples' 7 consecutive points closed the first quarter with an 18:18 tie.
Good minutes by Clark Rosenberg and a basket in the color of Alex Chubarevich set up a 22:29 advantage for the home team.
Josh Freund answered with a three and Raziel Hayun reduced to 30:33.
Chris Smith and Tomer Cohen exchanged threes and the board showed 38:43 to Urban 'Rain' Nahariya in the half.
The second half was already on one side - Urban 'Rain' Nahariya attacked the visitors at the start of the third quarter and went for a 3-22 run with the local crowd pushing Shai Saglovitch's players.
The advantage has already reached more than 20 points and the third quarter ended with 51:69.
In the last quarter, the winning identity was clear and Nahariya completed a 0-1 advantage in the series.
Many for "Rain" Nahariya:
Stefan Brunch 14 points, Dustin Thomas 12 points, Yogev Ohayon (13 assists), Alex Chubarevich (11 rebounds) and Clark Rosenberg 10 points each.
Many for Maccabi "Next Urban" Haifa:
Kwame Won (7 turnovers) 20 points, Tyler Smith Jr. 17 points, Josh Freund 13 points, Chris Smith 8 points.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us