The 17th round of the Winner Basket League continued tonight (Saturday) when Maccabi Tel Aviv suffered a surprising 91:85 loss to Hapoel Eilat in the Begin Hall in the southern city. The champion recorded only its third loss this season in the league and broke a streak of seven consecutive wins in the league. The loss is added to the Yellows’ dramatic and painful 72:70 loss against Bayern Munich in the Euroleague last Thursday.
Eilat was in control from the very first moment of the game. The Yellows looked tired and exhausted and Eilat took advantage of this to lead by 6 points at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was all about Eilat. The wonderful Prater, who finished the game with 23 points, was simply above them all, and together with Josh Nibo who scored four just mighty dunks on the Yellows’ head already in the first half, led Eilat already to a gap of 18 points, Went down to the break with a 14-point advantage over the Yellows.
Hapoel Eilat also continued to lead in the third quarter with a double-digit advantage, but a wonderful ability from Ante Žižić, who finished the game with 20 points, just like Tyler Dorsey who was the man of the Yellows in the last minutes narrowed the gap, and Eilat reached the last quarter with a lead. By 9 points. The last quarter was also close, Maccabi has already shrunk to 4 points thanks to great ability of Omri Caspi who finished with 8 points and Oz Blazer who finished with 10 points narrowed the gap, but Eilat managed to withstand a lot of pressure thanks to good ability of Yonatan Schuldbrand in the last quarter The game with 12 points and of course the mighty Joe Ragland who gave a wonderful game and finished with a double double that included 15 points and 13 rebounds led Eilat to 91:85 in the end.
Maccabi Tel Aviv should have dropped to a balance of 13 wins against 3 losses while still in first place. Hapoel Eilat rises to a balance of 11 wins against only 5 losses as it is in fourth place in the table and continues its great season.
First quarter: 20:26 to Hapoel Eilat
Hapoel Eilat quintet: Joe Ragland, Casey Prater, Markle Brown, Josh Nibo and Ben Carter.
Maccabi Tel Aviv quintet: Elijah Bryant, Sandy Cohen, Chris Jones, Oz Blazer and Ante Žižić.
Chris Jones scored the first two points of the game from the line, Carter with a 3-pointer and Prater with 2 points from the point set 2: 5 for Eilat. Josh Nibo scored 2 wonders from the point, Bryant also scored under the basket and it’s 4: 7 for the host. Sandy Cohen scored a wonderful three and set up an equalizer. Prater scored 2 in front of a soft defense by the Yellows, Carter scored in a quick attack after a ball snatch and Eilat leads by 5. Bender came in to replace Žižić and scored his first 2 points to shrink to just one point. Oz Blazer scored 2 and added 12 from the line and raised Maccabi to 12:14. Prater with another wonderful dunk compared the result. Markle Brown scored a wonderful three and Nibu scored a great dunk with a wonderful layup and it’s 5 again for Eilat. Prater scored 2 and it is already 14:21 to Eilat. Prater scored a three-pointer, rose to 11 personal points and it is already a 10-point win for Eilat. Josh Nibu scored 2 from the line and set 16:26 for Eilat. Caspi scored 4 consecutive points and shrank to only 6.
Second quarter: 40:54 to Hapoel Eilat
Ante Žižić opened the quarter well with 2 points. Hoover scored and stopped a 0: 6 run by the Yellows. Ragland scored 4 consecutive points which were his first tonight and returned to 10 points in favor of Eilat. Dorsey shrunk to 8-pointers but Josh Nibo with a mighty simple dunk returned to 10 points. Chris Jones landed badly on the leg, was injured and was replaced. He then returned to the game after rest and treatment. A huge three by Parter set Eilat’s record advantage tonight with 13 points over the Yellows. A huge three-pointer raised Eilat to 26:42. Schuldbrand added another three and it’s already 17 points to the host’s favor, crazy (!). Josh Nibo scored a third dunk in the number and raised Eilat to 18 points, Zechic shrank again under the basket and Dorsey with 2 hard points returned to 14 points in favor of Eilat. Dorsey shrank to 49:36 with a great three. Klein easily scored under the basket and shrank to just 11. Carter returned to business and scored an important basket that returned the advantage to 12 but Blazer scored on the other side and shrank to only 10. But a 0: 4 run at the end of the quarter set a 14-point lead for Eilat at the half.
Third quarter: 62:71
Maccabi Tel Aviv went up strong, Oz Blazer scored a three and reduced it to 9, but Brown returned a three of his own and it was 45:57 to Eilat. After almost 3 minutes without a basket, Ante Žižić scored a wonderful dunk under the basket, Ragland scored in the counter-attack and set 49:61 for Hapoel Eilat. Elijah Bryant scored a wonderful three and reduced it to just eight points. Carter scored wonderfully under the basket and went up to 10 individual points, just like the difference between the teams in points. Žižić scored 2 from the line and again shrank to only 8. Dibertolomao committed an unsportsmanlike offense, sent Brown to the line, the latter scored a point, but Eilat lost the ball and gave Maccabi the opportunity to shrink, Sandy Cohen took it with both hands, scored a huge three and shrank to only 6 mules. Omri Caspi again scored 2 of his own, Dorsey tried to shrink to only 4 but Schuldbrand made a great block and it is still 6. Veteran Schuldbrand scored another three and returned the gap to 9 points to Eilat.
Fourth quarter: 85:91 to Hapoel Eilat
Omri Caspi started the quarter well with the first 2 points. Brown returned with a huge three of his own and set 64:74 for Eilat. Tyler Dorsey scored an accurate three and shrank to 7 again. A huge three by Sandy Cohen narrowed the gap to just four. Wow, the mighty Prater scored a 3-pointer at the end of the 24 seconds from almost a hot field and raised Eilat to 70:77. Ante Žižić again scored from the spot and reduced to 5. Schuldbrand sent a huge simple three and it’s 8 to Eilat. Josh Nivo with an extra dunk on the Yellows’ head returned the gap to 10 points. Žižić again recorded a dunk in a passing attack and brought the gap back to 8. Eilat got into an offense problem when it made its fifth in the quarter and Dorsey scored a point from the line to shrink again to only 7 points. Tyler Dorsey scored 2 more points and shrank to just 5 points. Query does not seem to be under pressure. Bryant sent a wonderful assist to Chris Jones who sniped from the three and dropped to just 2. Brown scored from the other side and returned to 4 points in favor of Eilat. Wrangler went to the line, scored only one point and that is 5 to win Eilat. Bryant missed a super important three, Joe Ragland scored a huge basket from the other side and raised Eilat to 7 points 30 seconds from the end. Dorsey shrank with a 3-pointer to 4 points but it was too little and too late.
