{"id":30485,"date":"2011-01-09T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/maccabi-advances-to-israel-cup-final-four\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T05:37:06","slug":"maccabi-advances-to-israel-cup-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/maccabi-advances-to-israel-cup-final-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi Advances to Israel Cup Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amy Samin<\/FONT>

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Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv advanced to the semi-final of the Israel Cup (to take place on 7 February) by defeating Ironi Eldan Ashkelon 105 \u2013 75 in Nokia Arena.
No fewer than six Maccabi players finished in double figures, in an excellent display of both offense and defense.
Also advancing to the final four is cross-town rival Hapoel Tel Aviv of the National League, who defeated the Super League\u2019s Maccabi Haifa in overtime.
They are joined by Maccabi Ashdod, who defeated Gilboa\/Galil, and Barak Netanya who shut down Hapoel Jerusalem at Malha Arena.
The lottery for the two semi-final games will take on Tuesday.<\/FONT>
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With Jeremy Pargo feeling under the weather, Maccabi head coach David Blatt gave the nod to Chuck Eidson, along with Doron Perkins, Lior Eliyahu, Guy Pnini and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
Facing them were Dror Hagag, Gur Porat, Desmon Farmer, Thomas Terrell and Rashon Turner.
The opening minutes of the game were close, with Ashkelon relying solely on Turner.
A three from Eidson in the right corner tied the score at 7 after two and a half minutes.
The visitors continued to stay close, until a putback by Eliyahu and points from the foul line by Richard Hendrix gave Maccabi a four point lead, their biggest to that point, 13 \u2013 9 after three and a half minutes.
Farmer took his turn as the main man for Ashkelon, bringing his team within one, 17 \u2013 16.
Points by John Jakes reclaimed the lead for the visitors, but Milan Ma\u010dvan hit two free throws and a mid-range fade-away jumper and one to put Maccabi up 24 \u2013 18.
Hendrix, who finished the game with a double-double, slammed in a dunk and another bucket off the glass to put Maccabi up by ten at the end of the period, 28 \u2013 18.<\/FONT>

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The second period got underway with points by David Blu and Sofo.
A save by Hendrix opened the door for one of Perk\u2019s patented acrobatic layups plus free throw to extend Maccabi\u2019s lead to thirteen, 35 \u2013 22 after two minutes.
Ashkelon scored twice to cut the deficit to a single digit, 35 \u2013 26, but Blu (who will compete in the All-stars\u2019 three-point shootout on Tuesday) drained two straight catch and shoots (the second after a slick fake turned assist by Eidson) from downtown to make it 41 \u2013 26, three and a half minutes into the period.
Eidson sent out another dish, to Eliyahu this time, then Hendrix helped himself to the ball and jammed in a one handed dunk to put Maccabi up 45 \u2013 28.
A minute and a half later Hendrix scored another dunk (assist Eliyahu), giving Maccabi a twenty-one point lead, 51 \u2013 30.
Eliyahu then scored four times in a row for Maccabi (with assists from Hendrix and Eidson) and Hendrix (who had an excellent defensive game in addition to his double-double) rejected a basket by Porat.
Maccabi\u2019s defense held Ashkelon firmly in check, forcing turnovers and a shot clock violation.
The half ended with Maccabi leading 61 \u2013 35.<\/FONT><\/P>

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The second half opened with another dunk by Hendrix and points from Perkins (assist Eidson) but Ashkelon had their offense back in gear, closing the gap to 65 \u2013 42.
Maccabi continued to work the ball, and reopened their lead; a long two from Eidson made it 71 – 44 at the halfway point in the quarter.
Chuck soon followed that with a three from the right wing and a steal + coast-to-coast for the dunk; 79 \u2013 46, Maccabi.
Points by Ma\u010dvan put Maccabi\u2019s lead over thirty, 81 \u2013 50, with two minutes left in the quarter.
Co-captain Tal Burstein drained a shot from outside the arc and Blu scored in the paint off a great pass from Pargo.
At the end of three periods, with the home team keeping Ashkelon to under twenty points in every quarter, the score was 86 \u2013 54, Maccabi.<\/FONT>

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Farmer, John Jakes, and company continued to battle in the fourth quarter, but points by Pnini and Blu kept Maccabi\u2019s advantage over thirty.
With six and a half minutes left, team captain Derrick Sharp came into the game, to the delight of the crowd.
Pargo, who looked like he was feeling much better, drained a three from the top of the arc to make it 98 \u2013 69 with four minutes remaining.
Ashkelon refused to give up, but the eight points they managed in the final minutes couldn\u2019t overcome the deficit.
With seconds on the clock, Sharp provided the fans with another unforgettable moment, with a steal plus assist to Eliyahu for the dunk at the buzzer.
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv\u2019s 105 \u2013 75 victory over Ironi Eldan Ashkelon puts them in the Israel Cup semi-final.<\/FONT>

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Box Scores<\/U><\/B>:<\/FONT><\/P>

Maccabi<\/B>: Lior Eliyahu 19 points; Chuck Eidson 16 points, 9 assists; David Blu 15 points; Richard Hendrix 14 points, 11 rebounds; Milan Ma\u010dvan and Doron Perkins 11 points each; Tal Burstein 8 points; Sofoklis Schortsanitis 6 points; Jeremy Pargo 3 points; Guy Pnini 2 points.<\/FONT>

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Ashkelon<\/B>: Thomas Terrell and Rashon Turner 16 points each; Desmon Farmer 15 points; John Jakes and Ekene Ibekwe 7 points each; Gur Porat and Dror Hagag 4 points each; Ahiad Bukra and Tamir Simchony 2 points each.<\/FONT><\/P>

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Maccabi\u2019s head coach David Blatt<\/B> said after the game, \u201cWe came to this game knowing that our entire purpose was to reach the Cup semi-final.
I don\u2019t think Ashkelon is built for three games in a week, and we took advantage of that, applying pressure from the beginning.
I think we\u2019re playing well, including Sofo who tonight got into foul trouble and has a slight injury.
We wanted him to play more, but as soon as he got into foul trouble I decided to keep him out of the rest of the game.\u201d<\/FONT>

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Blatt added, \u201cThe rotation of big men has always been good, each player is finding his place, and no one is suffering from playing too much or not enough.
I\u2019m pleased to see how well the big men are playing together; it\u2019s art.
Congratulations to Hapoel (Tel Aviv) on their win and making the semi-finals.
We\u2019ll wait for the lottery and welcome whichever opponent we\u2019ll face.
We also really want that Cup.\u201d<\/FONT>

<\/P>

Lior Eliyahu<\/B> said, \u201cWe\u2019re playing inside, using our advantages, and doing it very well.
We\u2019ve made it through this stage and are looking ahead.
It wasn\u2019t easy; in the first quarter they really held us in check, and made a big push in the second quarter.
We\u2019ll see if we can play the same way in Europe; the size of the front lines in Europe is different.
As far as Hapoel (Tel Aviv), we\u2019ll be ready for whichever opponent we\u2019ll face.\u201d<\/FONT>



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www.samintranslations.com<\/U><\/FONT><\/A> <\/FONT><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a 105 \u2013 75 win over Ironi Eldan Ashkelon, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv advanced to the semi-final in the Israel cup competition. Six players finished in double figures. Cross-town rival Hapoel Tel Aviv also advanced to the next round. (Photos: Or Troyner).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-30485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495889,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30485\/revisions\/495889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30485"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=30485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}