Moshe Barda
Hapoel Jerusalem players (Hagi Michaeli)
Hapoel Jerusalem will be hosted tonight (Saturday, 19:10) at Begin Hall in Eilat for a meeting against Hapoel Eilat as part of the 15th round of the Winner Basket League. Aleksandar Dzikic’s team comes to the meeting from fifth place in the league table with a record of eight wins against six losses, when next Wednesday the Reds from the capital will meet Hapoel Holon as part of the French-Israeli home game in the FIBA Champions League.
In the previous round, the Jerusalemites beat Bnei Herzliya in a game that was decided by defensive possession in overtime and this week against Maurizio Buscaglia’s southern group, they will want to recover after the home loss to Dijon in the opening round of the last 16 stage of the FIBA senior competition.
For the meeting against the southern team from Eilat, which ranks second to last in the league, Hapoel Jerusalem chose not to register Brandon Brown and Sim-Sander Vana, so the five foreigners who chose to register with the team from the capital for the game are Speedy Smith, Kadin Carrington, Zach Hankins, Marks Meiris and Levi Randolph.
Meanwhile, Noam Yaakov, who joined Hapoel Jerusalem during the season after the injury of Noam Doberat and has not yet made his debut in the red uniform within the Premier League, may represent the Israel national team in the upcoming national team window since the basketball association is considering his call-up, as ONE has learned. Also, TJ Klein who signed earlier this week with the team will land tomorrow evening and join his new teammates.
On the other hand, Hapoel Eilat comes to the meeting when it registered five foreigners for the game and when it is ranked in the penultimate place with a balance of three wins against 11 losses. Statistically so far, the Jerusalem defense has positioned itself as the best in the Premier League and from an offensive point of view, the southerners are scoring on average one point more than Po’el Jerusalem, but are taking down fewer rebounds.
