A year after winning the championship, Hapoel Holon began its quest to defend its title and easily passed the first test with an impressive home victory over Hapoel Galil Elyon 69:106, en route to a 0:1 advantage in the quarterfinals.
For both teams, the encounter is not new, and they met in the playoff opener last season, when the Purples beat Barak Peleg's team 0-3, en route to a later win in the second championship in franchise history.
The next game in Kfar Blum, photo: Kobi Eliyahu
The host received a morale boost before the match from Israel Elimelech, the former player and great symbol of the Purples who came especially to watch the match from his home in the United States. At the beginning of the season, the "Elimelech" stand was inaugurated in the arena, and during the game the point guard will sit with the audience in the stand named after him.
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On paper, the series between the fourth-ranked team and the fifth-ranked team is supposed to be the tightest and most competitive, but tonight that was not the case. The champions opened the game with a high shooting percentage from outside the arc and got wonderful minutes from Messi. Jay Harris and Joe Ragland, who led the team to a promising double-digit lead in the second quarter. The Northerners struggled to stop the Purples' running game and scored 78 points after three quarters, as the margin continued to grow and crossed the 30-point mark. On Thursday, the series will move to the Kfar Blum Arena for Game 2.
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