Israel: Maccabi Electra wins League Cup
For the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in seven years, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has won the Israel Basketball League’s pre-season tournament, currently call the Chance Cup, sponsored by Pais Lotto. The 2013 edition featured the Tel Aviv squad squaring off against Hapoel Jerusalem, who has finished runners-up in the Cup twice in the last four years, won the Cup the two years prior to that (2008 and 2009) and also were runner-up to Tel Aviv in 2007.
On Thursday, Electra downed Hapoel Jerusalem 88:77 in Jerusalem’s home gym after falling behind 25:18 after the first quarter, and 41:34 at the half. A 54:36 second half brought the Tel Aviv contingent their fourth straight Cup. Sylven Landsberg was named the Cup MVP after scoring 21 points in the title contest.
In the first frame, the hosts jumped out quickly, building an 11:3 advantage. Tel Aviv cut the margin to 11:9 shortly after, but timely triples by Jerusalem kept them ahead for the frame and built a seven-point lead after the first 10.
Electra knocked down the first four of the second quarter to slash their deficit to four, 25:22. Hapoel Jerusalem got three-balls from Zack Rosen and Rafi Ali to push their lead to nine, 31:22 with six minutes left on the clock. Tel Aviv went on a 7:2 run to cut the gap to four, 33:29, but they couldn’t close completely. By the end of the half the locals had a seven-point lead, 41:34.
The guests came out fired up to open the second half playing tough defense, forcing turnovers and putting the ball in the hole, resulting in a 2:13 run to take the lead at 43:47. Jerusalem countered with the six points to retake the advantage 49:47 with half of the third frame in the books. Another 11 unanswered put Electra up 48:58, but a 10:5 stretch for Jerusalem wrapped up the scoring in the third with the guests up 58:63.
Tel Aviv got the first four of the fourth and just kept on going from there, outscoring their hosts 19:25 in the final 10 to earn their fourth consecutive cup with a 77:88 win.