Galil Elyon needed two overtimes to hold off Maccabi Petah Tikva.
By SHARON SOLOMON
Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Galil Elyon-Golan and Bnei Hasharon joined Hapoel Jerusalem in the State Cup semifinals Sunday with second-leg wins. The only real drama took place in Kfar Blum, where Galil needed two overtimes to hold off National League side Maccabi Petah Tikva. Jerusalem already advanced on Saturday night when it knocked off Hapoel Tel Aviv.
The semifinals will take place on February 16 at Nokia Arena.
After losing 78-64 in the first leg, Galil came back in front of 500 fans at home to win 130-107.
Galil led by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, but Petah Tikva fought back and reduced the deficit to 10 with less than five minutes to go. But the hosts remained calm and pushed their lead back up to 103-89 at the end of regulation, which sent the game into extra time.
In the extra periods, it was teenage guard Yogev Ohayon who stepped up and led his team into the semifinals.
Uche Nsonwu led the hosts with 28 points and 18 rebounds, while Jason Straight added 27, Sasa Bratic 22 and Ohayon 21 points and 10 assists. Pini Levi had 25 points and 13 rebounds in defeat.
Maccabi Tel Aviv 89 (98), Maccabi Rishon 84 (92)
The Cup holders from Tel Aviv wasted no time and took a 23-14 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back. Tel Aviv led 49-36 at halftime and 66-63 at the end of the third quarter. Rishon tried to fight back in the last period, but the yellow- -and-blue prevailed. Tal Burstein continued his good run of form from the Euroleague and finished with 22 points in 28 minutes. Anthony Parker added 16 points. Omar Sneed had 32 for Rishon.
Bnei Hasharon 75 (96), Ironi Ramat Gan 74 (84)
Ramat Gan led 40-34 at half time, but was unable to wipe out the 12-point deficit from the first leg. Terrence Rencher and Itai Lev were both sent off after throwing punches at each other in the third quarter.
Ousmane Cisse and Ugonna Onyekwe led Bnei Hasharon with 22 and 20 points, respectively, to lead the team back to the semis. Last year Bnei Hasharon reached the final before falling to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
On Saturday night, Hapoel Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 84-81 after winning the first leg by 10 to move on. Mario Austin led Jerusalem with 28.