By Amy Samin
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv defeated Bnei Herzliya 81-54 and swept the quarterfinal series of the Israeli Winner Sal League 3 games to none. Itay Segev led Maccabi's scorers with 12 points and 7 rebounds. Dagan Yivzori, Ike Ofoegbu, and Dragan Bender added 11 points each.
Starters for Maccabi were Dagan Yivzori, Itay Segev, Sylven Landesberg, Trevor Mbakwe, and Gal Mekel. A dunk by Segev and a pair of treys by Yivzori put Maccabi up 8-5 after three and a half minutes. Landesberg and Ike Ofoegbu increased the lead to 17-5 with three minutes left in the period, and points by Dragan Bender and Richard Hendrix put Maccabi's lead at 21-13 after ten minutes.
Herzliya started strong in the second quarter, closing to 23-18 after three minutes. Two putbacks by Segev got Maccabi fired up and reopened the lead to eight halfway through the period. Neither team managed to score in the next few minutes, until Taylor Rochestie put the hosts' lead back into double digits from the foul line. Mbakwe, Yivzori, and Bender combined to send the teams into the break with Maccabi up 41-28.
Rochestie, Segev, and Mbakwe extended Maccabi's lead in the early minutes of the second half, 46-30. Herzliya closed the gap a little, but Bender and Mbakwe combined to make it 55-35 Maccabi with three and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Ofoegbu scored five straight to end the period with Maccabi holding a 62-42 lead.
The fourth quarter was strictly for protocol, as Maccabi maintained a 20+ point lead throughout. By the time the game ended, all of Maccabi's players had made the stat sheet, and the game ended in an 81-54 victory for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv over Bnei Herzliya and a ticket to the Israeli Winner Sal League Final Four in Jerusalem.