Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv won the Winner Cup, Israeli basketball's traditional early season tournament, for a record 11th time on Sunday. The yellows withstood a late comeback attempt to beat Maccabi Ramat Gan 86-83 in the championship game in Holon, and captain John DiBartolomeo hoisted the season's first title.
This is the club's 121 official trophy all-time, more than any other basketball organization in the world. But it did not come without a fight, as Ramat Gan erased a 13-point Maccabi advantage and briefly led in the fourth quarter. Things took a turn to the worst just then, with Tamir Blatt seemingly hurting his knee when a rival player fell on his leg.
That was when Maccabi regrouped and took back control of the game with a 9-0 run, led by David DeJulius (15 points). Levi Randolph (18 points) and Jaylen Hoard (17 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks) connected on a big alley-oop play, and John DiBartolomeo regained his touch from deep with his third triple of the game to give Oded Kattash a big enough cusion to claim the victory.
Maccabi will now enjoy a well deserved break until the next game, when the yellows will travel to Milano on Thursday in the EuroLeague.