En route to another championship Maccabi TA routs Jerusalem 96-66
The Israel basketball league administration came up with the idea of replacing the playoff finals with a do-or-die Final Four format, but it made no difference last night, at the Nokia Arena in Yad Eliyahu, as Maccabi Tel Aviv routed Hapoel Jerusalem
From www.haaretz.com
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The Israel basketball league administration came up with the idea of replacing the playoff finals with a do-or-die Final Four format, but it made no difference last night, at the Nokia Arena in Yad Eliyahu, as Maccabi Tel Aviv routed Hapoel Jerusalem 96-66 to claim its 11th straight title.
Before last night, Maccabi and Hapoel had faced off four times this season, with the former increasing its margin of victory by mathematical progression from two points in the first game between the teams, to five in the second, 14 by the fourth and 30 last night.
If anyone thought that the change in format from a best-of-three series and the opportunity to claim the title in a one-off game would create a chance to steal the title from Maccabi, Pini Gershon's team proved them wrong last night.
Maccabi opened with impenetrable defense and the game was already 3:40 minutes old when Jerusalem scored its first points of the night.
Erez Edelestein's team hadn't learned the lesson of its State Cup final defeat, and left Sharon Sasson and Derrick Sharp free to find the net from three-point range. Maccabi ended the game with 13 of 22 triples.
With only Tamar Slay with 20 points and Matan Naor with 11 showing up in offense, Edelstein's team didn't have the tools to put up a fight against Maccabi.
Horace Jenkins failed to turn out for Hapoel, ending the game with 0 of 8 from the field and five turnovers, while Roger Mason again failed to show up in the money time and Meir Tapiro lost his scoring touch.
Nikola Vujcic led Maccabi with 20 points, with Will Solomon contributing 14 against his former team.
Earlier in the evening, Maccabi Rishon claimed third place after edging Ironi Nahariya 87-84 in a nail-biting encounter.
Not that anyone was on hand: The two teams could only muster up 70 fans between them for the event, with the atmosphere at the game coming from the Hapoel Jerusalem supporters waiting for the night's big encounter.