Maccabi Haifa Heat 76-Givat Shmuel 60 (14/12/2008)

Maccabi Haifa Heat (6-2) defeated Givat Shmuel to move the Haifa Heat into third place in the Israeli Premier League. Yoni Nir of Givat Shmuel was the first one to get on the board, shooting the opening field goal of the game. Stephan Bradford and Corey Carr raised Givat Shumel’s lead to 7-2 right at the opening. Nir continued shooting, and after his sixth point, Givat Shmuel went up 13-4. Bradford raised Givat Shmuel’s lead to 15-5 forcing Avi Ashkenazi to call a timeout. Towards the end of the first quarter, Doron Perkins and B.J. McKie narrowed the gap down to 25-15 by the end of the quarter.

The second quarter started much better for Haifa, with Amit Ben-David and Ido Kozikaro tightening the score to 31-26. A field goal by McKie with 2 minutes to halftime tied the score to 31-31, but two free-throws by Carr gave a three-point lead back to the host. Five consecutive points by Carr left Haifa trailing, but Kozikaro along with a three-pointer by Ben David got the Greens with in two points 39-37 by halftime.

Haifa started the second half focused, with four points by Kozikaro raising the Greens to 44-41. McKie and Sales continued the guest’s momentum on the way to 48-41, four minutes from the opening of the second half. At this stage, Kukia, Watson and Washington had eight rebounds each. Davon Jefferson and Gur Porat increased the lead with their field goals making the score 57-49 with one minute to the end of the third quarter. Ben Strong’s basket ended the third quarter – 59:49 to Haifa.

Gur Porat and Ben David helped Haifa open the fourth quarter well, raising Ashkenazi’s team lead to 63:50. McKie and Kozikaro continued raising the lead up to 67:51, but Jermaine Hall and Moshe Brener tried to shake up their team a bit, closing the gap to 69:58. Doron Perkins’s three-pointer and later two more free-throws iced the game with Kozikaro setting the final score – 76:60 to Haifa.

Scored for Maccabi Haifa: Ido Kozikaro 17 points, Brooks Sales 13, B.J. McKie 12, Doron Perkins 11, Davon Jefferson 10 (11 rebounds), Amit Ben David 7, Gur Porat 4 and Ben Strong 2. Moshe Mizrahi played 20 minutes and didn’t score.