Hapoel Tel Aviv downed Maccabi Tel Aviv 85-67 on Saturday night at the Drive-In Arena to even up the Israel Premier League finals at 1-1 and force a decisive Game 3 on Monday night back at Yad Eliyahu.
With a chance to close out the series, the yellow-and-blue looked to sweep to its second championship in a row, but a red-hot Xavier Munford was going to have none of that as the guard’s sharpshooting to open and close the game sent the home fans into delirium in north Tel Aviv.
Maccabi had won Game 1 84-76 last Thursday thanks to a fine fourth-quarter performance by Bonzie Colson. After a shorthanded Hapoel had given the hosts all kinds of problems for the opening 37 minutes, with the game on the line, Oded Katash’s team was able to pull out the victory to take the 1-0 lead.
However, Game 2 at the Drive-In Arena was an entirely different story as the start time was delayed by a quarter-hour due to long lines at the entrances due to the police and security services checking each and every fan that walked into the facility.
But that made no difference as the Hapoel fans lit dozens of flares as the game tipped off, which halted the proceedings by an additional half-hour as the contest only got rolling well past 10 p.m.
While Maccabi was certainly shaken up by the extracurricular activities, that didn’t stop the hosts from putting the pedal to the metal early and often as Munford scored at will from the outside while Tomer Ginat added points to give the Reds a 29-17 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Tamir Blatt helped the yellow-and-blue cut the advantage down to just four points in the second quarter, but an active Jaylen Hoard helped Stefanos Dedas’s team move in front 46-35 by halftime.
Roman Sorkin scored in the paint to try and get Maccabi back into the game, but Tyler Ennis found points on the inside and outside while Kyle Alexander did the same to bump the lead up to 63-49 after 30 minutes of play.Blatt and Colson tried to once again keep Katash’s squad in the game, but Munford had the hot hand in the final frame to wrap up the win and force a winner-take-all Game 3.
“We want to dedicate this win to the family of the soldiers who were killed and all the soldiers in the country,” Dedas said after the tragedy that occurred earlier in the day in Gaza. “There are more serious things in life other than basketball and this is kindergarten compared to real life. We played better than Maccabi for 40 minutes and we showed winning character during the game. It’s 1-1 and the pressure is on them back at their home court. We have to show our best version for the next 40 minutes.”
“This was not a good game from us and there were a lot of issues,” Katash said of his Maccabi side. “There are games that you can learn a lot from and some you need to forget very quickly – this is one of the latter types, and now it’s one game for the title. Pressure isn’t a bad thing and it’s part of what we do. We are going home now and we will play in front of our fans and this is what we battled for the entire season.”
Munford weighs in
Munford shared his thoughts about the victory.
“I’m excited but the job isn’t done as we have to go back to Maccabi’s home and I hope that we can win the game. I was very aggressive at the start of the game and I knew that I had to set the tone and everyone would follow. Everyone played well and I’m proud of them. We don’t want what happened last season to occur again. The guys all want to win and the club has been waiting for this for many years and we want to win the title. We need to go to Yad Eliyahu and complete the mission.”
Ginat also spoke about the win for Hapoel.
“It’s the finals against Maccabi Tel Aviv and we have to be aggressive and use the energy from this arena and the fans. We didn’t want the season to end and now we have a chance to win it all on Monday. We wanted to stay alive and give ourselves a chance to take home a title this season. It’s one game and the pressure is on both teams. We want to take another step after last season where we lost in three games to Maccabi and we will get ready now over the next 48 hours.”
Maccabi’s John DiBartolomeo looked back at the defeat and what lies ahead in Game 3.
“I didn’t think we were there from a focus standpoint and from a defensive standpoint and they dictated the pace of the game. In order to win the championship we have to play our game and we’ve done it all year. It’s one of the reasons we put ourselves in the position to be in first place and we can play back on our home floor with a chance to win the title. We have to get past this game and make the proper adjustments.”