Yellow-and-blue steadies ship with Herzliya win

After three tight quarters, Mac TA pulls ahead in final frame; J’lem notches seventh straight victory.

By ALLON SINAI
Maccabi Tel Aviv guard Jeremy Pargo (center) had 12 points and seven assists in his team’s 107-88 win over Bnei Herzliya last night at Yad Eliyahu Arena. (photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Maccabi Tel Aviv guard Jeremy Pargo (center) had 12 points and seven assists in his team’s 107-88 win over Bnei Herzliya last night at Yad Eliyahu Arena.
(photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Maccabi Tel Aviv required a late run to beat Bnei Herzliya 107-88 at Yad Eliyahu Arena to snap its five-game losing streak on Thursday night, but Hapoel Jerusalem remained hot on the yellow-andblue’s heels with a 13th win from its past 14 games.
A 22-4 fourth-quarter run opened a 23-point gap (107-84) for Maccabi, which was led by Sylven Landesberg, who finished with 24 points and eight rebounds, hitting all six of his three-point attempts.
Yuval Naimi scored 19 points for Herzliya.
Maccabi, which improved to 24-5, was playing without Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who was suspended earlier in the day for three games by the Israel Basketball Association’s disciplinary court after being ejected late in the first half of Saturday’s defeat to Hapoel Gilboa/ Galil for elbowing Marcus Lewis.
The Greek center was also fined NIS 50,000.
Jerusalem was far from its best on Thursday, but still did enough to claim a 67-58 win over Gilboa/ Galil. There was little to separate the teams for most of the contest, but Jerusalem held Gilboa to just seven points in the fourth quarter to clinch the win. Donta Smith had 17 points and eight rebounds for Jerusalem, which moved to 23-7. Alex Young scored 15 points for rock-bottom Gilboa, which will need a sporting miracle to avoid relegation, trailing Maccabi Ashdod by two games and a tiebreaker with three games to play.
Ashdod (10-20) could have already officially secured itself another season in the top flight on Thursday, but it lost 88-85 to Maccabi Haifa. Will Graves had 20 points for Haifa, which won for the seventh time in nine games.
Jermaine Hall netted 18 points for Ashdod.
Hapoel Holon, Hapoel Eilat and Hapoel Tel Aviv are all tied with Haifa at 15-15, with Eilat registering an 83-75 victory over Ironi Nahariya.
Kevin Palmer finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds for Eilat, with Mark Lyons scoring 22 points for Nahariya.
Holon dropped to .500 after losing 86-78 to Ironi Ness Ziona (14-16).
Mitchell Watt was superb for the winners with 26 points and 17 boards, while Isaac Rosefelt had 18 points and 10 boards for the slumping Holon.