Won our 1st Game aginst Beer Sheva

Tuesday November 6th 2007 - Our first win 90-83 of the season at home in Romema against Beer Sheva. A tremedous come back victory against a worthy opponent. Down by 13 points starting the 4th quarter - Maccabi Haifa Heat played with desperation and determination in securing their first victory of the season. We outscored Beer Sheva 34-14 in 4th quarter to win by 7 points. Our bench came in and pressed and change the pace and outcome of the game. We held our first opponent below 50% shooting from the 3 point line. This win was despartely needed by our team for their self confidence. We are hopeful this victory will propel our team to better play with more self confidence. Our fans enjoyed a well played game with the excitement of a significant come back.

Tough Lost At Romema to Megido

Saturday November 3rd 2007 - We lost our third game in a row, this one 78-80 at home to Megido. This is a game we felt we would win, we were up by 13 points in second quarter and did not hold the lead at home. We strongly thought we were the better team, but this is why the game is palyed and score is kept. We lost on a last second shot, from a long outlet pass to a player on the run for a short bank shot. We had our center playing deep, but he was slow in reacting to the long outlet pass. Our defensive player responsible for guarding the opponent who scored did not keep his body between the opponent and the basket, basic basketball defense.
I do not think the defensive lapse in the final seconds is why we lost. Without the defensive lapse in final second we probably would have lost in overtime. The trend in our lack of defense started in 3rd qtr and continued into 4th qtr. We allowed Megido to make six 3pt shots in the 4th quarter and take the lead, this is why we lost the game. Once again poor 3 pt defense.

Game Kiryat Ata

We lost our second road game at Elizur Kiryat ATA 87 to 76. We lost game by 11 points after leading by 9 pts after first quarter, leading by 8 pts at half time. We were out scored in the 3rd quater by 7 points and went into the 4th quarter with a 1 pt lead. We were outscored by 12 pts in the final quarter. It appears our 3 pt defense is a major problem as well as conditioning. We used only 7 players in the game. To defend the 3 pt line takes commitment from the players that they will not leave the good outside shooters open. I am not sure if our team is coached to be aware of the opposing teams best 3 pt shooters and not to leave them open. Our team needs to become quicker, stronger and play smarter against 3 pt shooters. The National league appears to be a 3 pt shooting league and we are getting beat by 3 pt shooting(2 games now). Kiryat ATA shot 52% from 3 pt line(11-21), we shot 18% from 3pt line(4-22). Are we a bad shooting 3 pt team and Kiryat ATA a good shooting 3 pt team? I think the answer lies in how each team plays defense.

First League Game at Netanya

Lost our first league game on the road to Netanya by a score of 95 to 86. We took a 27 to 24 first quarter lead by scoring the last 5 points of the quarter. Netanya came out in the second quarter and score the first 12 points and went on to win the quarter 34 to 16, leading at half time by 15 points. Netanya maintain their lead until the last few minutes of game when we made a run, but it was too little too late.