It had to come sometime. Maccabi Girls Ashdod lost on Monday evening for the first time this season in an Israeli enterprise in general and in the league in particular. 72-66 against the arch-rival from Ramla
The last cycle in the Premier League for women in basketball, promised and exists. The round brought together the two teams that reached the playoff finals last season, Elizur Ramla who was late to Maccabi Girls Ashdod who came to the game without a loss this season in the league.
Ashdod, which came to the game without Kalani Brown, can be encouraged that it lost away, without its big star, on the other hand, it’s a loss that comes precisely against the sworn rival Ramla, who already beat Ashdod (with completely different squads) in Europe.
The beginning of the game did not herald the end, when Ashdod started the game great. Ashdod scored from inside and outside and made the host look lost already in the first minutes.
Shira Al-Avler, who saw her team fall behind significantly, took a timeout after only two and a half minutes and came back from it with an attempt at an orderly game, which narrowed the gap. But Shatori Walker’s three-pointers towards the end of the quarter widened the gap again in favor of Ashdod at the end of the quarter to 13:22.
The second quarter was already much more equal, Ashdod managed to maintain the level of play from the first quarter for many minutes, but Ramla managed to come back with 32-30 at the end of the quarter.
The second half started like the entire game – with Ramla’s 3-pointer that restored the advantage, both teams relied on their strong points: Ashdod, which was missing the injured Kelani Brown, enjoyed a shooting evening from Walker, while Ramla went inside as much as possible.
Ashdod proved throughout the game that it can give the reigning champion a fight even without Brown, but its ability to threaten the basket grew weaker throughout the second half.
Ramla finished the third quarter with a slight advantage of 49:50, and went up to the fourth quarter to get to know the game, the momentum has already passed to Ramla.
Heideman still managed to narrow the gap a bit, but a 3-pointer by Noor Kif and a successful penetration by Austin increased the gap for Ramla to double digits, a little more than a minute to the end.
It ended 66:72 in favor of the local team, which gave Ashdod its first loss of the season. Cannon led the winners with 24 points, Walker led the other side with 25.
Ramla, forced to play without Eden Rotberg, partnered Alysha Clark and Alyssa Barron who are recovering from injury, and showed great character in today’s game.