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Arik Alfasi’s team has proven that it has earned the title ‘surprise of the season’ rightfully.  After two losses to Haifa throughout the season, the Netanya crew has reached Romema, played great basketball under Danilo Pinnuck’s lead, won 76:88, rose to 0:1 and moved the home advantage on to their side.  Haifa will have to recover on the upcoming game.

After the Romema Arena was all painted green last week, the Haifa crowd has decided to take a little rest off basketball (only 1,800 viewers) and to focus on the local soccer team’s struggle.  The one who did show up to the game was Danilo Pinnuck, Netanya’s prodigy, who alone got to lead Netanya on to a great offense quarter and got it off the court at a 23:22 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The guests from Netanya continued to dominate the rhythm of the game on the second quarter as well, managing to gradually increase their lead as Pinnuck and Toni Washam do as they please on the court.  Jason Rich and good minutes of Ben Strong kept Ashkenazi’s team in the game, but Alfasi’s team finished the first half excellently with a three-pointer by Tony Washam with the buzzer setting a 35:48 to the guests.

Arik Alfasi’s team rose from the dressing room with the same passion and desire that characterized it on the first half, raising their top lead to 15 points (36:51).  Haifa ’s crowd blamed this score on the referees and began throwing rolls of paper on Yaron Zarif protesting the refereeing, an act that lead to a short pause of the game.  Netanya and Danilo couldn’t care less and the Panamanian swingman raised the hosts to 40:56 with another three-pointer.

Ashkenazi took timeout to stop the erosion, but Netanya didn’t rest not even for one second and 4 straight points of Marco Killingsworth turned the game into a humiliation.  A steal and another basket on an eruption by Tony Washam made Ashkenazi take another timeout and the local crowd took advantage of that time to yell towards the green players “why didn’t you stay home” and “you have no dignity”.

The second timeout wasn’t that helpful for Haifa as well, as the guests from Netanya fully dominated under the baskets, making the locals take hard shots and personal great moves of players.  On the other side, Alfasi’s protégés continued patiently moving the ball around, reaching convenient shooting positions on the way to an incredible 49:71 by the end of the third quarter.  Part of the crowd has left in protest of the team’s ability.

On the last quarter, Haifa’s players rose to the court with the purpose of keeping hteir dignity towards the rest of the series, and on the first three minutes it managed to shrink down the lead to 15 points thanks to a great warring defense game of Amit Ben David and Todd Golden (first minutes in the game), who ran Haifa forwards to a 0-7 by the opening of the quarter.  Pinnuck stopped the locals’ enthusiasm with a move of a basket and foul but Ben David, with a three-pointer and a basket on an eruptive, returned the hope back to the local team, lowering the lead to 12 points (61:73) six minutes to the end.

Arik Alfasi took timeout on time and Tony Younger, with 5 straight points (all from the penalty line) got Netanya back to a promising lead within a minute.  Haifa continued fighting despite the difference, and good minutes of Jesse Pellot Rosa and Mamadou N’Diaye managed to lower down the lead to 7 points alone (74:81) with a minute and a half to the end of the game.  Two penalty shots of Tony Washam got Netanya back to a safety lead and another three-pointer by Washam on the last minute determined the end of the game.  76:88 to Netanya.

Scored for Maccabi Haifa: Jason Rich 17 points, Jesse Pellot Rosa 14, Mamadou N’Diaye 10 points, Moshe Mizrahi and Davon Jefferson 8 points each, Amit Ben David 7 points and Dror Hajaj 5 points.

Scored for Barak Netanya: Danilo Pinnuck 30 points and 11 rebounds, Tony Washam 26 points and 12 rebounds, Marco Killingsworth 13 points, Tony Younger 9 points and Eliran Gueta 2 points.