In the 2nd round of the upper playoffs, Haifa/Motzkin suffered another
loss
to a lower seeded team, losing in a convincing manner at Petah Tikva.
Ramat
Hasharon came out on top from a fierce battle for 4th place against
Bnei
Yehuda, and Ramla beat the short-handed Ramat Hen.
Elizur Ramla 87 – Maccabi Ramat Hen 74
Ramla officially secured 1st place going into the semi finals. Ramat
Hen was
missing two starters – Ina Boutenko and Plenette Pierson. Boutenko
missed
her 2nd straight game with an illness. Pierson sat out with a painful
blister…
Even though Pierson recorded only 4 points per game vs. Amber Hall and
Ramla
in the two previous meetings this season, Ramat Hen missed her greatly
and
was ridiculously undersized. They resulted to standing around the 3pt
line,
making quick passes and either launching a 3 or letting Tawona Alhaleem
and
Edwina Brown make something happen.
The game was close early on but Ramla, led by Ayana Walker’s 12 first
quarter points, built a 26-19 lead after 1. Not much changed in the 2nd
and
Ramla led 48-37 at the break. Ramat Hen had to pick their poison,
either let
the Ramla posts continue their field day or go inside and leave the
shooters. In the 3rd, Ramla’s Israeli shooters helped Ramla get its
biggest
lead, 74-52 after 3. In the 4th, Tal Natan put the bench in, to avoid a
blowout that could result in complacency if and when they meet Ramat
Hen
again. Ramat Hen broke 60 for the first time against Ramla this year
and
made the score respectable.
For Ramla:
Amber Hall – 18 pts, 12 rebs
Monika Veselovski – 16 pts
Ayana Walker – 15 pts
Nili Natho – 13 pts
Ina Gourevitch – 11 pts
For Ramat Hen:
Tawona Alhaleem – 25 pts
Edwina Brown – 22 pts
Lena Fedulova – 12 pts
Hapoel Petah Tikva 78 - Hapoel Haifa/Motzkin 56
By Orli Klinger
Petah Tikva got a win that probably won’t help them too much in the
standings, but it was much needed as it ended a tough 2-game losing
streak.
3rd ranked Motzkin looked incredibly bad in the last 3 quarters and
need to
forget about this game as quickly as possible.
Motzkin however started out well with a 9-2 run, a lead which later
grew to
12-4 with 6:30 to play following Mustafina’s 3. Jackie Moore helped
Petah
Tikva cut it to 12-10 after missing some early shots, but Motzkin
answered
with a 6-0 run and led 18-12 after 1.
Moore picked up her 2nd foul just seconds into the 2nd quarter, Crystal
Givens re-entered the game and got her 3rd in a hurry from the
whistle-happy
refs. Hila Alankry and Molly Creamer hit 2 threes each while Motzkin
stayed
scoreless for 5 minutes. The lead grew to 9 but Lynn Pride, who also
had a
nightmarish day, woke up a bit and cut it to 33-26 with 3 minutes to
go. The
locals led 38-31 at the half.
Pride hit two short jumpers to start the 3rd and made it a 3-point game
but
Creamer with a dish to Moore and a 3 pushed it to 10. Moore got her 4th
foul
and left for the bench with 7 minutes left in the quarter but Petah
Tikva
didn’t miss a step. They led 56-48 after 3.
Creamer and Chanel Wright-Green, who also played a good game, made 2
quick
layups to make it 60-50. The timeout didn’t help Motzkin as they
continued
to look like a mess on offense, and watched Wright-Green break their
press
repeatedly with layups that made it a 14 pt game. The gap kept growing
until
the buzzer.
For Petah Tikva:
Chanel Wright-Green – 20 pts, 10 rebs
Jackie Moore – 16 pts, 7 rebs
Molly Creamer – 11 pts, 7 rebs, 7 assists
Hila Alankry – 10 pts
Rivi Grinboym – 9 pts, 5 assists
For Haifa/Motzkin:
Lena Mustafina – 11 pts
Lynn Pride & Laine Selwyn 10 pts each
Ramat Hasharon 64 – Bnei Yehuda 62
5th ranked Bnei Yehuda came into Ramat Hasharon knowing that with a win
they’d advance to 4th place. The game was close through out but Aluma
Goren
scored her team’s last 6 points as Bnei Yehuda managed just 1 point in
the
last 2 minutes. Bnei Yehuda was down 2 with 9 seconds to go but Gunta
Basko
rejected Erin Thorn’s attempt out of bounds. Two seconds still remained
on
the game clock for Bnei Yehuda but the inbound pass was stolen.
Defense was the story of the game, and Ramat Hasharon started out in a
man.
DeTrina White, who scored 25 pts in her team’s big win at Motzkin, was
constantly double-teamed and Bnei Yehuda had a few early turnovers
trying to
get her the ball. Leigh Aziz picked up the slack, scoring her team’s
first 6
points as they led 8-6, over 4 minutes into the game. Ramat Hasharon
went on
a 10-0 run, using a surprising edge on the offensive glass and behind
good
shooting by Varbanova. Bnei Yehuda answered with a run of its own to
tie the
game at 16 after 1, thanks to two big threes by Hila Izhar.
A little 3-point shoot out developed early in the 2nd. Natasha
Bratskova,
back after missing 6 games with an injury, was first to hit. Thorn
answered,
then Basko and Thorn again. Basko was then fouled on a 3, made three
from
the line but Izhar had the last say with her 3rd trey of the game. Bnei
Yehuda then went on a run as Thorn found White with a pretty assist,
Ramat
Hasharon missed some chippies and White ended a fast-break with an ‘and
1’
to give her team a 38-32 lead at the half. Aziz led all scorers with 12
pts
on 6 for 6 shooting, Varbanova had 10 to pace Ramat Hasharon.
Ramat Hasharon tightened up the D in the 3rd. Basko glued herself to
Thorn,
Ramat Hasharon was denying the ball from Aziz’s hot hand and it worked.
Aziz
added no points on 3 shots in the 2nd half. Bnei Yehuda had just 6
points in
the quarter, while Ramat Hasharon enjoyed Goren’s assists and was still
controlling the boards. They led 48-44 after 3.
White ended her team’s drought with 3 offensive rebounds and 4 points
to
start the 4th. Thorn and White’s cooperation was working great and
White’s
6th point of the quarter shortly followed. The lead kept changing sides
but
was never more than 2 until another Thorn assist to White made it 61-58
in
favor of Bnei Yehuda. Aluma Goren answered with a big 3pt play to tie
it,
Thorn added one from the line but Goren again went all the way to the
hoop.
Down 1 with 1:20 to go, the visitors almost wasted the entire shot
clock
twice, and were eventually forced to foul Goren with 11 seconds left.
She
made one of two to make it 64-62 and it was enough.
For Ramat Hasharon:
Lidiya Varbanova – 20 pts, 9 rebs
Aluma Goren – 14 pts, 9 assists
Gwen Jackson – 13 pts, 10 rebs
Gunta Basko – 10 pts, 10 rebs, 3 steals
Natasha Bratskova – 5 pts
For Bnei Yehuda:
DeTrina White – 23 pts, 12 rebs
Leigh Aziz – 12 pts, 5 rebs
Erin Thorn – 12 pts, 9 assists
Hila Izhar – 11 pts
The 7-10 teams also played last night.
Ashdod beat Holon, 95-75. Jo Ruth-Woods and Vika Rudovski led Ashdod
with
20 pts each, Kenya Larkin had 12. Kristina Covington had 37 for Holon.
Maccabi Raanana beat Jerusalem 83-65. Alina Morchova and Michelle Smith
scored 17 each for the winners, Telisha Quarles led Jerusalem with 20
pts.
Round 20’s MVP: Aluma Goren
Ramat Hasharon lost its share of big games this year, but last night in
a
game for 4th place Goren made sure that won’t happen again. She had 14
points, 9 assists and took over the game at crunch time, scoring her
team’s
last 6 points to secure the win.
Round 20’s First Team:
Aluma Goren – Ran the game very well for her team, was unstoppable at
the
end.
Molly Creamer – Finished with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists vs.
Motzkin in a good all around game.
Chanel Wright-Green – Scored many of her points in the 4th quarter to
help
Petah Tikva put the game away, something that they had trouble doing
quite a
few times this season. Wright Green finished with a double double of 20
points and 10 boards.
DeTrina White – We usually try not to pick players from losing teams,
but
White didn’t leave us much choice. She overcame the double-team with
sheer
determination, got herself in a position to get the ball and score,
finishing with 23 points on great shooting. White was aggressive as
always
on the boards, pulling down 12 despite being vastly undersized.
Lidiya Varbanova – Varbanova played well through out the game, scoring
20
points and grabbing an uncharacteristic amount of 9 rebounds that
helped
Ramat Hasharon win the battle on the glass.
Thursday in the upper playoffs:
Ramat Hasharon @ Ramat Hen
Petah Tikva @ Bnei Yehuda
Ramla @ Motzkin
The Standings:
1. Elizur Ramla 19-1
2. Maccabi Ramat Hen 15-5
3. Hapoel Haifa/Motzkin 14-6
4. Ramat Hasharon 13-7
5. Bnei Yehuda 11-9
6. Hapoel Petah Tikva 9-11
7. Maccabi Raanana 8-11
8. Maccabi Ashdod 5-14
9. Jerusalem 4-15
10. Elizur Holon 0-19