Israeli League, Regular Season, Game 6: November 29- December 1, 2008 - ISRAEL

February 09, 2010

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Israeli League, Regular Season, Game 6: November 29- December 1, 2008

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv won its first game with new-old head coach Pini Gershon on the sidelines to remain in a three-way tie atop the Israeli League. Maccabi climbed to 5-1 alongside Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem and Gilboa/Galil. Maccabi and Gilboa/Galil won by big margins on the road, while Hapoel defeated the champs from Holon. Bnei Hasharon earned its fourth win in a row with a road win over newcomer Givat Shmuel to level its records with Maccabi Haifa Heat at 4-2. Carlos Arroyo led Maccabi Electra with 22 points and 10 assists, Marcus Brown added 19 and four more players scored in double digits in a convincing road win. Hapoel used a big night by local guard Yuval Naimi, who scored 27 points in a 91-81 win over Holon. A run in the fourth quarter made the difference as Timmy Bowers added 15 with 5 rebounds and Omar Sneed had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Luis Flores led Holon with 22. Gilboa/Galil trashed Rishon Lezion 63-86 on the road in a one-sided game right from tip off. Brian Rendle with 23 points and Brian Roberts with 16 put the smiles on the faces of Gilboa/Galil while Robert Conley had 19 for the losing side, which dropped to 1-5 at the bottom of the table. Bnei Hasharon's Meir Tapiro was the top scorer with 21 points and 7 assists while Cookie Belcher added 18 points to lead their team to its fourth consecutive win, 68-79, at Givat Shmuel. Ironi Nahariya lost its third home game in a row this season with a 61-71 defeat to Haifa. The hosts hit only 1 out of 15 attempts from long range, while Haifa enjoyed 17 points by Moshe Mizrahi and a near triple-double performance by guard Doron Perkins who had 10 points, 10 assists and 9 rebounds. Two more teams with the same record are Ironi Ramat Gan and Qiryat Ata who went head-to-head as the former won on the road to celebrate its debut win this season, 82-85. Anthony Miles led Ramat Gan with 20 points.

In its first Israeli League game with head coach Pini Gershon, Maccabi looked like its old self with a 75-99 road win against Ironi Ashkelon. Just like old times, Maccabi cruised and left no doubt as to the eventual winner early in the game. Carlos Arroyo led Maccabi with 22 points and 10 assists, Marcus Brown added 19 and four more players scored in double digits - Dror Hagag and Omri Casspi scored 11 each while D'or Fischer and Yaniv Green scored 10 each. Ashkelon saw Rashon Turner score 16 and Steve Burtt had 15. Fischer displayed two big dunks already in the first quarter, one of them followed a backboard alley-oop pass by Brown, on the way to a 19-28 lead after 10 minutes. Maccabi started the second quarter with a heavy rain of three-pointers. Arroyo, Brown, Hagag, Casspi, Brown again and Tal Burstein scored the first six buckets of the quarter for Maccabi, all behind the arc and without a single miss on the way to a 23-47 lead. Later Arroyo added another three ball, the seventh accurate in a row for his team, as Maccabi already reached 57 points and a difference of 30 after 16 minutes. By halftime the gap was 36-62 and the box score showed the yellow-and-blue hit 13 in 14 attempts from close range and 10 in 18 attempts from downtown. And Maccabi never allowed Ashkelon to move closer. Hagag used the minutes to get back in shape, to add 5 assists and 5 rebounds to his collection, while Gershon chose to rest Tre Simmons and Esteban Batista and keep Rodney White out of the roster.

Head coach Ariel Beit Halahmy returned on Saturday night to the court he grew up in, to face Givat Shmuel, where he made his first steps, but showed no sentiments leading Bnei Hasharon to a 68-79 and a fourth consecutive win in the league. Meir Tapiro was the top scorer with 21 points and 7 assists while Cookie Belcher added 18 points and Ugonna Onyekwe scored 16. Jermaine Hall led the losing side with 19 points. Tapiro and Onyekwe led Bnei Hasharon to an 8-17 lead early in the game, on the way to an 8-point lead after a single quarter. Cory Carr and Hall carried their team back to the game as Givat Shmuel took a lead early in the second half after a good finish before the break and small run in the third quarter. Tapiro with Belcher led a 2-16 run, but Givat Shmuel gave one last effort to enter the last quarter down by just two buckets, 56-60. Taprio hit from long range and Katz stepped up on defense as Bnei Hasharon once again took a double-digit lead, which secured the victory before the trip to Thessaloniki for the Eurocup game against Aris.

LAST GAME GAME 6 November 29 - December 1, 2008
Day	Match	Result
Nov. 30	Kiryat Ata vs. Ramat Gan	82-85
Nov. 29	Givat vs. Bnei Hasharon	68-79
Dec. 1	Ashkelon vs. Maccabi	75-99
Nov. 30	M. Rishon vs. Gilboa Galil	63-86
Nov. 29	Nahariya vs. Heat Haifa	61-71
Nov. 30	Hapoel J. vs. H. Holon	91-81

NEXT GAME GAME 7 December 6-8, 2008
Day	Match
Dec. 7	Kiryat Ata vs. Heat Haifa
Dec. 7	Ramat Gan vs. Givat
Dec. 6	B. Hashron vs. Ashkelon
Dec. 7	H. Holon vs. Nahariya
Dec. 7	Gilboa Galil vs. Hapoel J.
Dec. 8	Maccabi vs. M. Rishon

	STANDINGS	TG	W	L	P+	P-
1	Maccabi Electra	6	5	1	518	431
2	Hapoel Jerusalem	6	5	1	527	476
3	Gilboa Galil	6	5	1	502	450
4	Heat Haifa	6	4	2	487	426
5	Bnei Hasharon	6	4	2	435	434
6	Givat Shmuel	6	3	3	483	482
7	H. Holon	6	3	3	500	498
8	Nahariya	6	2	4	463	466
9	Ashkelon	6	2	4	489	508
10	Kiryat Ata	6	1	5	452	543
11	Ramat Gan	6	1	5	450	529
12	M. Rishon	6	1	5	443	506