After Maccabi Tel Aviv made its way back from the Euroleague Final Four yesterday, it could sit back and, while not necessarily rooting for its longtime rival, it could have been hoping Hapoel Jerusalem would beat Hapoel Holon in their Premier League game last night. Alas, Holon pulled away from Jerusalem in the fourth quarter to record a 103-88 victory that guarantees it will stay at the top of the standings for another week.
Holon and Maccabi Tel Aviv were equal on points going into this week's games, and Maccabi can keep pace with Holon by beating Galil Elyon on Thursday.
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Hapoel Jerusalem, on the other hand, is falling further and further away from qualifying for the local Final Four. With three games left and a new coach, Jerusalem is now tied with Ironi Ramat Gan, which defeated Gilboa/Afula 97-82 last night, for sixth place, two points and games behind fourth-place Ironi Nahariya, itself an 80-69 winner over Bnei Hasharon last night.
Against Jerusalem last night, Holon's Chester "Trey" Simmons and Malik Dixon each scored 18 points, while P.J. Tucker added 16 points and nine rebounds.
Erez Markovich and Guy Pniny kept Hapoel Jerusalem in the game, as they have been doing for most of the season, but the visitors appeared to spend all of their energy on an early fourth-quarter rally and ran out of steam down the stretch.
The game was close for the first half as Hapoel Jerusalem led 24-22 after the first quarter; and then Holon took a 45-44 advantage into halftime.
In the third period, the game swung back and forth as Holon went on a seven-point run to take a 61-53 lead, Jerusalem came back to within two (63-61), Holon stretched its lead to nine (75-66) and finally Jerusalem narrowed the deficit to 77-73 at the end of the period.
Jerusalem continued its momentum into the fourth quarter, taking an 83-82 lead, but after that, it was all Holon, outscoring Ziv Erez's squad 21-5 the rest of the way.
Roni Busani's Ironi Nahariya leaped over Ironi Ashkelon, which suffered a narrow loss to Maccabi Rishon Letzion last Thursday, into fourth place.
The first half was a low-scoring affair as Nahariya took a 36-34 lead over Bnei Hasharon into the locker room. But then the damn broke as the visitors scored 30 points in the third period alone, while holding Bnei Hasharon to just 15.
Bnei Hasharon, which was missing Meir Tapiro and Cookie Belcher, completely fell apart, and Nahariya took a 21-point lead (73-52). After Bnei Hasharon somehow managed to put together a nine-point run, Nahariya turned the tables and went on a 7-0 run to close out the game.
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