Basketball: Hapoel Tel Aviv slump continues with 93-83 home loss to Haifa

By ALLON SINAI
Maccabi Haifa’s Rene Rougeau (photo credit: BSL)
Maccabi Haifa’s Rene Rougeau
(photo credit: BSL)
A 20-4 run to end the game secured Maccabi Haifa a 93-83 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv in BSL action at Arik Einstein Arena on Monday night.
After a tight first half ended in a 46-42 Hapoel lead, the hosts held a slender gap for much of the second half and seemed to be well placed when debutant Dijon Thompson gave them a six-point lead (79-73) midway through the fourth quarter.
However, Hapoel lost its way after that, with Rene Rougeau and Dagan Yavzuri inspiring Haifa’s run to clinch the win.
Rougeau ended the night with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Ike Ofoegbu had 20 points and Yavzuri added 18 points for Haifa, which improved to 10-13.
Durand Scott scored 23 points for Hapoel, which fell to 12-11, losing for the fourth time in its past five games.
Meanwhile, Maccabi Tel Aviv received some bad news on Monday, announcing that Sylven Landesberg will be out for two to three more weeks due to a stress fracture in his right foot. Landesberg was originally ruled out at the end of February for three to four weeks after being diagnosed with the injury, meaning he was set to return to training sometime over the next week. However, the fracture is healing slower than expected and Maccabi will have to manage without the swingman in the Euroleague games against Zalgiris Kaunas this Thursday, at Real Madrid next week and likely also versus Galatasaray, as well as local BSL action over the next couple of weeks.
Maccabi improved to 21-2 in the BSL on Sunday with an 86-68 win over Hapoel Eilat, picking up some much needed confidence ahead of Thursday’s crucial game against Zalgiris.
The yellow-and-blue has dropped three of its past four continental games to fall to 6-4 in Top 16 Group E, being outplayed in an 89-71 defeat to Barcelona in Spain last week.
Zalgiris kickstarted its Euroleague campaign last week with a 76-70 win over Panathinaikos, improving to 4-6 and climbing up to fifth place.
Elsewhere, Bnot Herzliya won its first-ever women’s State Cup on Monday, beating Ramat Hasharon 58-46 in a low-scoring affair in Rishon Lezion. The first half ended in a seven-point Herzliya margin (20-13), and despite cutting the gap to a single point (29-28) ahead of the final 10 minutes, Ramat Hasharon couldn’t complete a comeback and lift the title after stunning favorite Maccabi Ashdod in the semifinals.
Essence Carson led Herzliya with 20 points.