Basketball: Ashkelon dumps Holon, moves closer to securing final spot

Defeats Holon 94-84 at home and will advance to playoffs with a home victory against Hapoel Galil/Gilboa next week in its final game of the regular season.

By ALLON SINAI
ironi ashkelon 88 (photo credit: )
ironi ashkelon 88
(photo credit: )
Ironi Ashkelon snapped Hapoel Holon's six-game winning streak on Monday night and took a significant step towards booking its place in the BSL playoffs. Ashkelon defeated Holon 94-84 at home and will advance to the playoffs with a home victory against Hapoel Galil/Gilboa next week in its final game of the regular season. A victory will guarantee Ashkelon at least eighth place in the standings, and the team could even finish in seventh position should Ironi Nahariya lose at Ironi Kiryat Ata next week. Holon's loss seriously jeopardizes its chances of securing home-court advantage in the playoffs. The team leads Galil/Gilboa and Bnei Hasharon by one game, but can only be overtaken by Galil, which owns the tie-breaker over Holon based on head-to-head competition. Holon has its fate in its own hands, but it faces Maccabi Tel Aviv on the road next week, and if it fails to win at the Nokia Arena, Galil will be able to leapfrog the team into fourth position with a win at Ashkelon. Holon scored the first five points on Monday night, but Ashkelon soon found its rhythm and led 25-22 after 10 minutes. The hosts continued to extend their lead in the second quarter and built a 12-point advantage (51-39) by the half. However, Holon had no intention of going down without a fight and ate away at the lead in the third. The visitors still trailed by double-digits with two minutes to play in the frame, but were down by just four points entering the fourth quarter (71-67). Holon remained within striking distance in the first five minutes of the final period, but as the encounter drew to a close, Ashkelon pulled further ahead and Tyrone Grant's three-pointer all but clinched the win with 1:32 to play, opening a 10-point margin (88-78), from which Holon could not return. C.J. Bruton scored 22 points for Ashkelon, with Rashon Turner recording his 10th double-double in 12 games, scoring 17 points and taking 11 rebounds. Deron Washington led Holon with 28 points, with Luis Flores adding 17 points in a losing cause.