Maccabi Rishon Lezion defeated Hapoel Eilat 89-75, securing promotion to the Israel Basketball Premier League after winning the Leumit League finals series 3-2.
Qua Grant and DJ Burns combined for 51 points in a game that was back and forth for the first three quarters until the pair of imports helped Sharon Drucker’s team pull away in the final frame, securing not only the victory but also a spot in the top league.
Rishon will return to the Premier League after three years in the Leumit League, and many of the players will follow the club to the top division, while Drucker is also expected to come back.
Rishon had started the season poorly but made some roster changes along the way, letting go of a pair of underperforming imports and bringing in the Burns-Grant duo. With these personnel moves, Drucker was able to navigate the turbulent waters of the Leumit League and join Maccabi Ra’anana as the second team to advance to the Premier League.
Rishon won the opening game of the series down south on the road, while Eilat replicated that success in Game 2 with a win away from home. The Red Sea squad then triumphed on its home court as it sought to close out the series on the road. However, Drucker’s team managed to secure a narrow victory at home to tie the series at 2-2, setting up for the Game 5 win.
In the decider, Dusty Hannahs and Brandon Huffman scored early on to give Hapoel Eilat a quick lead, but Grant and Josh Freund, along with a last-second triple by Amit Reuven, handed Rishon Lezion a 24-19 lead after 10 minutes.
Reuven continued with the hot hand from the inside and outside, but midway through the second quarter, Huffman’s dunk broke the backboard, which led to an hour break in order to repair the basket, with the visitors holding a 31-30 lead.
Hannahs came out of the delay with points, while so did Jordan Coblin, as a Burns dunk gave Drucker’s team a 40-39 halftime advantage.
Hannahs and Porat started to score at will to open the third quarter, Grant responded as did Burns, but Hannahs couldn’t stop scoring as he gave Danny Gutt’s Eilat side a 62-59 lead after 30 minutes.
Burns kept finding the bottom of the basket, and Grant went from beyond the arc to give Rishon a double-digit lead and break the game wide open to wrap up the victory and earn its promotion.
Grant scored 31 points, Burns added 21 points, and Freund scored 17 points for Rishon in the win. Hannahs led Eilat with 30 points, Porat chipped in with 15 points and Huffman put in 11 points in the loss.
'We did it our way'
Drucker expressed his excitement after winning the series.
“Wow! Crazy! We dreamed about this, and all season we were geared up to do exactly this. I have a great staff, and I did it my way, defense, defense, defense. That’s how I always play, and we brought the team up to the Premier League. We had such a huge heart to be able to do this.
“This was an incredible series, and I have a group of warriors. I have always said that we are family, and perhaps we don’t have the biggest names, but we all have huge hearts, which always win out. We did it our way, like Frank Sinatra’s famous song. We made some adjustments over the course of the series, but the key was all of us sitting and watching Game 3, and we learned something from that contest, which we were able to implement into our game plan for the last two games of the series.”
Reuven also spoke about the victory.
“It’s amazing, and our fans were incredible. This promotion is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Our hearts and souls, along with the fans, really pushed us on to this win. We didn’t begin the season well, and we had wanted to finish in first place in order to take the automatic promotion place. We made some adjustments, and we brought in a pair of great players who helped us go from 10th place all the way to the top of the league. This was one of the best series that I have ever experienced in the Leumit League, and I have been here for five years.”
Burns added: “It’s an amazing feeling after we did such hard work all season long. We weren’t always in the best position, but in the end, we were able to handle the pressure. We are a famil,y and these are all my brothers. We wanted to win and we did it.”