Jerusalem crashes to tough loss in Holon

There was further bad news for Jerusalem on Wednesday, with veteran center Yaniv Green suffering what is likely a season-ending knee injury after slipping in the second quarter.

By ALLON SINAI
Hapoel Jerusalem coach Danny Franco (photo credit: ODED KARNI/BSL)
Hapoel Jerusalem coach Danny Franco
(photo credit: ODED KARNI/BSL)
Despite advancing to the semifinals of the State Cup earlier this week, Hapoel Jerusalem remains in crisis mode after suffering a humbling 89-70 defeat at Hapoel Holon in postponed BSL action on Wednesday night.
Jerusalem edged Maccabi Rishon Lezion 81-78 in the cup quarterfinals on Sunday for its second win in the competition in four days. However, it failed to build on those triumphs on Wednesday, dropping to its fourth consecutive league loss and a 9-4 record after opening the campaign with a club record nine straight wins.
There was further bad news for Jerusalem on Wednesday, with veteran center Yaniv Green suffering what is likely a season-ending knee injury after slipping in the second quarter.
Jerusalem trailed by two points (28-26) at the time, but lost its way after that, with Holon going on a 12-0 run to open a 40-26 gap.
Holon would dominate the rest of the game, claiming an impressive win to improve to 7-6.
Tony Crocker led Holon with 18 points, while Jordan Taylor had 16 points. Yotam Halperin scored 15 points for Jerusalem, which was also still without injured point guards Derwin Kitchen and Bar Timor.
“We will have to think how we can organize the team and overcome this period,” said Jerusalem coach Danny Franco. “It is unpleasant for us to lose like this, but I have no complaints to my players as far as the effort they gave. ”