Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised back to winning ways in the BSL on Sunday night, while
Maccabi Haifa continued its impressive season with its sixth win in its past
seven games.
Tel Aviv (10-1) looked out of sorts for much of Thursday’s
Euroleague Top 16 defeat at Montepaschi Siena, but Bnei Herzliya caused it no
such problems on Sunday, with the yellow- and-blue claiming an embarrassingly
easy 113-85 win.
Devin Smith led five Maccabi players in double-figures
with 20 points, while Lior Eliyahu scored 19 and new signing Darko Planinic
added 17 points in 17 minutes in his BSL debut.
Romel Beck had 32 points
for Herzliya (4-7).
Unsurprisingly, Haifa had to work much harder for its
victory, eventually toughing out a 79-73 win at Maccabi Rishon
Lezion.
Haifa held a slender lead throughout the game and survived a late
Rishon comeback to improve to 8-3 and remain in second place.
Gal Mekel
led the Greens with 17 points, with Donta Smith scoring 15 and Pat Calathes
contributing 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Julian Wright had 21 points and
11 boards for Rishon, which dropped to 5-6 after losing for the sixth time in
eight games.
Hapoel Tel Aviv fell to its fourth defeat in five contests
on Sunday, losing 72-67 at Maccabi Ashdod.
After a promising start to the
campaign, the newly-promoted Hapoel has struggled for form in recent weeks,
losing to Ashdod despite holding a double- digit cushion (43-33) early in the
second half.
Diamon Simpson had 22 points and 10 boards for Ashdod (3-8),
while Curtis Kelly scored 19 for Hapoel (5-6).
Also Sunday, Hapoel
Holon’s crisis continued to deepen with a seventh straight defeat.
Holon
lost 72-70 at Barak Netanya, with Deron Washington scoring the winning basket at
the buzzer.
Marco Killingsworth had 18 points and 14 rebounds for Netanya
(7-4), with Frank Hassell leading the despondent Holon with 15 points and 13
boards.
On Monday, Hapoel Jerusalem welcomes Hapoel Eilat and Hapoel
Gilboa/Galil visits Ironi Ashkelon.
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