Even before the tip off it was clear that Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv will have no problems in disposing Hapoel Galil Elyon/Golan. The visitors were without the injured Lior Eliyahu, Uche Ensono, Uriel Marko & Ran Eizik. This meant that they played without inside men and explains the total domination of Maccabi in rebounding (45-18) in spite of playing without Nikola Vujcic & Jamie Arnold. The players from the north of the country did their best in the first quarter to stay in touch (26-22 for Maccabi). At half time Maccabi. coached on the night by Dan Shamir, opened a 14 pts gap (58-44). The visitors scored only 11 pts in the third period and Maccabi`s lead was 78-55. In the final period the home team played with four Israeli players and one New Zealander and eventually won by 29 pts (101-72). Maccabi made 11-19 (58%) in three pointers and had 69% in FG but only 44% in FT. They also dished out 26 assists. MVP for the night was Sharon Shason with 18 pts in 73% FG, 12 rbds & 5 asts. Tal Burstein had 15 pts, 5 asts & 4 rbds. Other Maccabi scorers: Baston 17, Solomon 13, Casspi 9 and 7 rbds, Green 8, Sharp 8, Parker 5, Dotan 4, Fanan 3, Penney 1 point. Top scorers for Galil Elyon: Bratic 25 & 9 rbds, Bozov 16& Ohayon 12 pts & 7 assists. photo: Yaniv Ben Simon