Maccabi Haifa secured a place in the post-season basketball league playoffs last night after beating Maccabi Rishon Letzion 99-85.
The victory means that Haifa will finish the regular league season in fourth place and will meet Maccabi Tel Aviv in its semi-final series.
In the 26th and penultimate round of league action Hapoel Jerusalem lost 82-81 to Hapoel Galil Elyon in the north, allowing Ironi Ramat Gan, which has already played its 26th round game to go back to second place in thestandings. The two clubs will nevertheless meet in the other semi-final series.
In last night's two other games Maccabi Tel Aviv had its last outing before next weekend's Final Four in Bologna and easily beat Elitzur Kiryat Ata-Motzkin 83-51 and Givat Shmuel beat Maccabi Ra'anana 93-86.
Haifa's success was largely thanks to Stanley Brundy who began the game against Rishon with 14 consecutive points. Still Haifa did not manage to pull clear as Rishon, already relegated, kept close as they trailed 14-11 and 22-19 before ending the half behind 52-39.
Haifa continued to lead in the second half and saw Amir Muchtari also chip in with a good performance to see the gap widen again. Marco Bolic and Muchtari ended the game with 19 points each and Brundy added 18. Rishon was led by Tim Mason's 29 points and Rowan Bart's 24.
Although currently fifth, Haifa will overtake Givat Shmuel to finish fourth in the standings after the final round of action.
Hapoel Jerusalem lost to an all-Israeli Galil lineup after the northerners released their foreign players. Galil, one of the powerhouses of local basketball until this season, and the championship winners in 1993 added another loss to the Jersusalem side which lost the State Cup in a one-sided final to Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.
A topsy turvey game saw Galil open well only for Jerusalem to take over the lead and go into the locker rooms ahead at 39-38, but early in the second half Sharon Sasson, Ido Kozhikaro and Ilan Berkowitz saw the northerners re-take the lead and barely hang on as Jerusalem kept in the hunt. They even regained the lead at 81-80 with seven seconds to go, but free throws from the line gave Danny Hazut the chance sink the two points Galil needed for victory.
