Elitzur Ramla and Maccabi Girls Ashdod tonight (Monday) completed a sweep over Maccabi Ramat Gan and AS Ramat Hasharon in both semi-final series when they beat them 0:3, and rightly advanced to the playoff final which will be a repeat of last season, in which Ramla won the championship for the 11th time in its history .
The third round of games of the playoff semi-final series looks like a direct continuation of the two that preceded it. Ramla and Ashdod proved once again that they are a level above the league this season, and they will once again face each other in the final series that will open next Monday.
Elitzur Ramla – Maccabi Ramat Gan 83:93 (0:3 to Ramla in the semi-final series)
Elizur Ramla could not have hoped for a more convincing opening than this. She did her best offensively, with Shakira Austin dominating with a high hand under the baskets. Ramat Gan did manage to score a few easy points in the paint, but could not stop the host’s run, which reached comfortable shots even in the organized attacks, and finished at 15:23 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter also started very badly for Ramat Gan, who got stuck in the attack and managed to produce only two points in five minutes. A figure of one three-pointer out of 12 attempts certainly did not help, and to all this was added a slow decline in defense. Ramla opened a gap of 17:33 and Ramat Gan took a timeout hoping to change momentum. But she mostly came back from him with shots for three – and they didn’t go in either. Even the minutes that Austin sat on the bench did not help the Blues narrow the gap, which continued to grow until halftime. 28:49 for the host during the break.
Ramat Gan came back very determined in the second half. She stepped up aggressively in both defense and attack and narrowed the gap to 16 points. Jamie Nard’s 3-pointer could have cut it to 13, but the ball slipped out. Ramla responded with four consecutive points by Austin, the gap returned to 20 and the feeling was that the air had gone out of the blues’ sails. 52:74 to Ramla ten minutes ago.
The last quarter was for the record only. Jamie Nard admittedly scored as much as she wanted and her team also tried to run and reduce the deficit, but as throughout the series, she was not defensively prepared for Ramla’s attack and the gap did not shrink even when Shira Havler gave her stars the opportunity to rest for the final series.
When Ramla felt that Ramat Gan was still getting closer, she returned to her safest option tonight – Austin – and she squeezed the fifth foul from Jaylin Elin and sealed even Ramat Gan’s faint hopes for a close result. It ended 83:93 in favor of Ramla, who completed a 0:3 victory in the semi-final series and rightly advanced to the final series, trying to keep the title from last season.
They scored Ramla: Austin 27, Clark 21, Babkina 14, Rothberg 10, Baron 9, Danan 8, Fleischer 4.
They scored for Ramat Gan: Nard 30, Elin 15, Brown 13, Shalom 13, and Tori 12.
Maccabi Girls Ashdod – AS Ramesh 72:81 (0:3 for Ashdod in the semi-final series)
Both teams struggled to find the baskets in the opening, as in the first game of the series, but the one who broke free first was the home team who tried to go inside to Liz Cambage at every opportunity. Although Ramesh was unable to produce a run in the attack, the aggressiveness in the defense forced Ashdod into turnovers and the low score served the visitors, who managed to stay close to Ashdod. Both teams broke free in the last minutes of the first quarter, each of them scored twice from outside the arc, and despite the clear height advantage of the locals, their advantage was only 19:25 at the end of the first quarter.
While Alyssa Jenkins was Ramash’s barometer – when she was able to generate points out of nowhere and was not tempted by unnecessary shots from outside the arc – Ashdod’s weapon continued to be the walk inside. Even when Cambage was not on the court, Drew Edelman was there to open the gap that Ramat Hasharon She hoped so much to avoid it. The advantage of the locals had already reached 23:40, but just when it seemed that we were going to another one-sided game, points came from Charlie Collier and a three-pointer from Jenkins, which kept the Reds in the game. But then Ashdod came back A more organized timeout in the defense and also her threes – which went in at an amazing percentage in the early game – came back to play a role. The gap grew to 33:50 at halftime, with the most negative figure for the visitors being zero points for Jasmine Jones.
Only three players scored for Ramat Hasharon in the first half, and she went into the second half with the understanding that the only way back into the game would be through defense. The yellows’ first points from the field came only in the fourth minute of the third quarter, when May Dayan scored a three. But Ramat Hasharon had a hard time turning it into momentum for her, when Jenkins was an exclusive factor in the attack. It was a bad offensive quarter for both teams, who lost a lot of balls – which of course did not help Eli Rabi’s players narrow the gap. 47:66 heading into the decisive quarter.
Both teams entered the last quarter a little better offensively, but the exchange of baskets was obviously not in order for Ramesh, which had already fallen behind by more than 20 points. Seven minutes to the end, Willingham decided to take down Cambage and save it for the final series, and a minute After that, when the identity of the finalist seemed to be sealed, all the five went to the bench except Mai Dayan. Ramesh scored a little outside the arc towards the end, but of course it did not change the bottom line – 72:81 at the end for the Yellows, who rightly advance to the series that will decide the identity of the champion.
They scored for Ashdod: Walker 15, Heideman 15, Cambage 14, Cohen 13, Edelman 13, Dayan 8, Sahar 3.
They scored for Ramat Hasharon: Jenkins 27, Saar 14, Collier 13, Jones 9, Kasten 3, Nesher 3, Deloti 3.