Haifa and Eilat to battle for No. 2 seed

The battle for the No. 2 seed will be determined on Sunday in a direct showdown between Hapoel Eilat (17-9) and Maccabi Haifa (16-10).

By ALLON SINAI
David Blatt 370 (photo credit: Adi Avishai)
David Blatt 370
(photo credit: Adi Avishai)
The BSL regular season will come to a close on Sunday night, with some unfinished business still to be decided.
Two of the four quarterfinal playoff series are already set, with No. 1 seed Maccabi Tel Aviv to face Hapoel Tel Aviv (8) and Barak Netanya (4) to play Hapoel Jerusalem (5).
The battle for the No. 2 seed will be determined on Sunday in a direct showdown between Hapoel Eilat (17-9) and Maccabi Haifa (16-10) and its outcome will decide who faces who in the remaining last eight encounters, which will all get underway on Thursday.
The winner of the game between Eilat and Haifa will end the season in the runnersup position as Haifa will leapfrog the southerners on a tiebreaker should they claim a home victory at Romema Arena on Sunday.
“We will have to be more composed than we’ve been recently,” said Haifa center Ido Kozikaro, with the Greens losing three consecutive games before beating Maccabi Rishon Lezion last week.
Eilat has won five of its past six contests, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.
Hapoel Gilboa/Galil awaits the winner of the encounter in Haifa, with the loser to play Maccabi Rishon Lezion in the playoffs.
Maccabi Tel Aviv hosts Netanya in what is a seemingly meaningless game on Sunday, but after suffering two straight overtime defeats, the yellowand- blue will be desperate to return to winning ways ahead of the start to the playoffs.
“We have really wanted to play well, but we haven’t managed to do so since our Euroleague exit,” said Maccabi coach David Blatt after seeing his team fall to Jerusalem on Thursday four days after losing to Eilat. “We are in a pretty deep hole and we can’t ignore that. I hope that we get back on track before the playoffs.”
Also Sunday, Jerusalem faces Rishon Lezion, Hapoel Holon visits Hapoel Tel Aviv, Gilboa welcomes Maccabi Ashdod and Bnei Herzliya plays Ironi Ashkelon.