Ironi Nahariya wins big to set up a showdown with Balkan for the 1st place

Ironi Nahariya recorded another win in Group D of Delasport Balkan League. The team hosted fellow Israeli side Maccabi Next Urban Haifa and had no trouble to take 105-73 victory. It puts Ironi on a 3-1 record and sets up a clash with Balkan on March 31st which will decide the 1st place in the group and the direct qualification for the Final 4. In the meantime Maccabi is now on a 1-3 record and the two games against TFT will decide the team’s final position. The first of them is already on Thursday and will take place in Skopje.

Ironi started hot the game and pretty much decided it already after one quarter. The home side wanted to show from the beginning why it came to the floor and did so by taking a 20-point lead after just ten minutes. Their offense continued to be really effective in the second quarter as well, so they scored 33 more points to increase the advantage to 29 at the break. In the second half all that was left to see was the final difference which was 32 points after the final buzzer.

The hosts scored 17 triples from 35 attempts which compared to 7 of 28 for the visitors proved out to be the biggest difference for the final outcome.

The winners were led by Dolev Drapic who had a great game hitting 8 triples from 8 attempts on his way to 26 points. Stephaun Branch had 18 points while Dustin Thomas added 10 and 7 rebounds.

Raphniel Putney was the top performer for the visitors with 16 points and 9 rebounds while Steve Taylor had 14 and 10.

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