The Israeli women’s basketball Premier League returned to normal service on
Monday night after the local players’ union agreed to a deal with the Israel
Basketball Association, ending a two-week strike.
The Israel Basketball
Association announced last week that it is canceling the women’s top-flight
season following the work stoppage announced by the Israeli players, who were
unhappy with the cancellation of the ‘Russian rule’ – which dictates that two
local players have to be on court at any given time during a game.
The
IBA planned to resume the season even without the Israeli players on Monday, but
a new agreement was finally signed earlier in the day and the local players
showed up for the games.
According to the new deal, the ‘Russian rule’
will return for three seasons starting next year, while each team will be able
to use four foreigners at once this season as the IBA demanded.
In BSL
action, Barak Netanya suffered its fourth straight defeat to start the season,
losing 104-94 at Maccabi Haifa.
Sylven Landesberg led Haifa with 35
points, while Carlos Powell scored 23 for Haifa, which improved to
2-3.
Christian Barnes had 28 points for Netanya.
Netanya got off
to the better start, but Haifa came back with an 11-1 run before the visitors
scored the final points of the period to lead 26-25 after 10 minutes.
The
second frame unfolded in a similar way to the first, with the visitors pulling
ahead, only for Haifa to end the half with a 12-2 surge that tied the score at
48-48.
Netanya scored the first nine points of the second half to open a
margin it would hold throughout the third period, but Haifa held its composure
the better of the two teams in the final 10 minutes to claim its second win of
the season.