Maccabi T-A: took 2nd place (7-3) in Group C of Regular Season, took 2nd place (3-3) in Group H of Top16, lost to Panathinaikos 2-3 in the Quarterfinals (!!!)
Eurobasket.com All-Israeli League Awards 2011-12 - May 29, 2012
Eurobasket.com All-Israeli League 1st Team 2012
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Travis
Hendrix
Carter
Ohayon
Kitchen
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Player of the Year:Romeo Travis (200-PF-84) of Galil Gilboa Guard of the Year:Keith Langford (193-G/F-83) of Maccabi T-A Forward of the Year:Romeo Travis (200-PF-84) of Galil Gilboa Center of the Year:Richard Hendrix (203-F/C-86) of Maccabi T-A Import Player of the Year:Joe Crawford (196-G/F-86) of Maccabi Rishon Domestic Player of the Year:Yogev Ohayon (189-G-87) of Maccabi T-A Newcomer of the Year:Gilad Karni (195-F/G-87) of Maccabi Ashdod Sixth Man of the Year:Alex Tyus (203-F-88) of Maccabi Ashdod Defensive Player of the Year:Bryant Dunston (202-F/C-86) of Hapoel Holon Co-Coach of the Year:David Blatt of Maccabi T-A Co-Coach of the Year:Ofer Berkovic of Maccabi Ashdod
Maccabi T-A triumph in 2011/2012 season - May 24, 2012
FINAL Maccabi Ashdod-Maccabi T-A 63:83
Maccabi T-A triumph in 2011/2012 season proving their ambitions of the top team. The favorites overcame Maccabi Ashdod 83:63 in the Final game. The game was mostly controlled by Maccabi T-A. Maccabi Ashdod was better in third quarter 20-17. But it was not enough to take a lead and get a victory that evening. Maccabi T-A had a 30-18 advantage in offensive rebounds. They shot the lights out from three nailing 15 long-distance shots on high 62.5 percentage. Maccabi T-A players were unselfish on offense dishing 22 assists comparing to just 8 passes made by Maccabi Ashdod's players. Yogev Ohayon (189-G-87) nailed a double-double by scoring 10 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists for the winning side and Keith Keith Langford (193-G/F-83, college: Kansas) accounted for 16 points and 5 rebounds. Alex Tyus (203-F-88, college: Florida) came up with 16 points and 9 rebounds and the other Josh Duncan (203-C/F-86) added 13 points and 9 rebounds respectively for Maccabi Ashdod in the defeat. Both teams had four players each who scored in double figures. In the game for the third place Hapoel Holon overcame Maccabi Rishon 72:67.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv Tops Rishon For 39th State Cup Title - Feb 16, 2012
Maccabi Tel-Aviv downed Maccabi Rishon Le-Zion82:69, collecting another state cup trophy (39th, but who's counting) to its already overflowing showcase room on the port in Tel-Aviv. Keith Langford was red hot from the start finishing with 23 points, but Rishon's nifty European rookie guard Joe Crawford, responded with 20 of his own, going at anything David Blatt threw his way.
Out of the 6 available foreign players he had, Maccabi's David Blatt decided to bench Demond Mallet and Theo Papaloukas, despite the Greek's 'I want to play in the finals,' statement.
Moments before tip-off, the psychological games had begun as Rishon's maintenance man Roger Gedge, told Eurobasket, 'Last time I sat on the bench in a cup finals game was during the 2008-09 season with Holon, playing against Maccabi Haifa. We won.'
Several minutes later, Langford went on a private 7-0 run to start the game, and Roger realized he was in for a long night.
By intermission, Rishon gave up 22 possessions (11 turnovers and 11 offensive boards), Yogev Ohayon ran the fast break to perfection and Langford collected 18 points on 83% shooting from the field. Crawford's isolation plays and Adrian Uter's board pounding helped the underdogs keep within striking distance, as the 20 minutes buzzer sounded with Tel-Aviv ahead, 46-34.
Richard Hendrix (9) and Sofoklis Schortsanitis (7) continued to crash the boards in the third frame, allowing all Euroleague sharp shooter David Blu to bank back-to-back-to-back jumpers, the last one being so uncontested he strolled down court with his arms wide open ah la Michael Jordan.
Early in fourth, Guy Pnini's layup made it a 20-point game (68-48), but Rishon wasn't done just yet. Derwin Kitchen and Brandon Bowman nailed downtown buckets, cutting the deficit to 9 with less than two-minutes remaining and the orange Rishon fans going nuts.
Ohayon and Kitchen split baskets, but Burstein from the charity stripe and Blu's trey, officially signaled to release the confetti.
Faces of disappointment and frustration were noticed in Rishon's locker room before Crawford shouted, 'I'm proud of all you guys. Showed heart and fought till the very end.'
Tel-Aviv scooped up its 39th state cup title and third in a row, however, Sunday's heated road game in Jerusalem against local Hapoel, one of two Israeli teams to beat Maccabi this season, mellowed down the yellow-and-blue's locker room chanting.
Maccabi TA: Langford 23, Burstein and Blu (4/5 from deep) 12 each, Hendrix 10 points & 9 rebounds, Schortsanitis 8 points & 7 boards, Pnini 7, Eliyahu 6, Smith and Ohayon 2 points each. Rishon: Crawford 20, Kitchen 18 points & 9 rebounds, Bowman 15 points & 11 boards, Uter 8, Hanochi and Ben David 3 points each, Solomon 2.
It might have been the lack of any kind of defensive effort or maybe the fact that he played against his own coach, or simply his potential exploding, however, there's no clear explanation to how Hapoel Jerusalem's forward Elishay Kadirwon All-Star Game MVP honors leading Team Israel to back-to-back victories over Team Foreigners (113:109), scoring 40 points on 14/16 shooting from the field, 4/5 buckets from three and grabbing 13 rebounds.
3-Ball Competition
Ashkelon's local hero Amit Simhon dominated the 3-ball competition with ease. Yuval Naimy (12), Dion Dowell (12), David Blu (13) and Yahu Orland (13) failed to make it out the first round, while Ron Lewis (14) advanced to the finals against Sihmon (18), who won 12-9 in a close shootout after going 0-11 between stations. The women's league's Ambrosia Anderson qualified to the king-of-kings round (14), but only nailed 9 points before Simhon took the hardwood. With the assistance of 2,500 chanting fans including teammates Dwayne Mitchell, Marco Killingsworth and Niv Berkowitz from the sidelines, Simhon dominated the competition with 16 final points.
Dunk Contest
Despite impressive dunk attempts by Sean Labanowski, Alex Tyus and Adrian Banks (last year's Dunk Camp), it was Bnei Hasharon's rookie Roi Buchbinderand Rishon's leaper Brandon Bowman, who showed immense athletic abilities on route to the dunk contest finals round. Bowman's final attempt was impressive earning 29 points from the judges (who never dunked their entire pro-careers), but Buchbinder, who jumped over teammate Tweety Carter in the second round, was on his Blake Griffin vehicle mode, jumping over his assistant coach's Triumph Herald 1960 Cabriolet Classic for a perfect 30 score.
All-Star Game Recap
Both squads seemed to agree on playing no defense allowing Maccabi Tel-Aviv's Richard Hendrix and Lior Eliyahu to shoot three balls (?). Tweety Carter and Dwayne Mitchell proved to be the worse alley-oop duo ever while Meir Tapiro found Sylven Landesberg for easy fast break dunks, while Kadir finished the first quarter with 16-points and Team Israel with a 36-34 lead.
In the second frame, Eliyahu kept shooting his ugly but efficient one-hand floater, Kadir collected a few buckets but Paul Delaney, Josh Carter, Tweety Carter and Dwayne Mitchell were heating it up from the land of deep, but still found themselves down 62:59 at intermission.
Israel pulled ahead 77-70, but Bowman was eager to make up for losing the Dunk Contest, showing his bunnies while collaborating with Banks for some high flying points. All-Star host Dwayne Mitchell was looking to win the game's MVP, tying things up at 83-83, but one of Meir Tapiro's game high 10 dimes found Orland for a trey, 86-85.
A hyped Foreign Team shifted gears in the fourth, locked down their defense and pulled ahead 99-94 with 4-minutes remaining. Yuval Naimy answered by banking a three ball of glass and Landesberg's jam tied things up again at 105-105. Tapiro and Eliyahu connected for a 2-point Israeli lead, Mitchell's attempt from down town went in-and-out and Team Israel prevailed 113-109.
All Star Rosters
Team Foreigners: Head Coaches Dan Shamir and Sharon Drucker. Richard Hendrix, Romeo Travis, Bryant Dunston, Dwayne Mitchell, Marco Killingsworth, Brandon Bowman, Josh Carter, Paul Delaney, Adrian Banks, Tweety Carter and Jermaine Jackson.
Team Israel: Head Coaches Efi Barenboim and Eric Alfasi. Lior Eliyahu, Yuval Naimy, Elishay Kadir, Niv Berkowitz, Amit Simhon, Nitzan Hanochi, Meir Tapiro, Ezequiel Skverer, Yahu Orland, Isaac Rosfelt and Sylven Landesberg.
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