Women’s Super League in basketball: Ramla beat Jerusalem and went 0:2 in the final series

Elitzur Ramla took a big step this evening (Thursday) on the way to the Women’s Basketball Premier League Championship, when they beat Hapoel Lev Jerusalem 94:95 and went 0:2 in the final series. An amazing game by the Ramla captain, Eden Rotberg, ended with 33 points. A home win in Ramla this coming Monday, and the reigning champion will lift another plate.

Three days after both teams squeezed themselves in overtime in the first game, this evening Hapoel Lev Jerusalem and Elizur Ramla advanced to the second game in the final series looking fresh and above all determined.

Brilliant offensive first minutes of both teams created a high score, which was marred only by Alyssa Baron’s second foul in the second minute of the game. Ramla used against Jerusalem a weapon that she herself often uses – and ran at every possible opportunity. Trailing 14:6, Limor Peleg called a timeout, but nothing stopped the fast pace of the game, under the auspices of which 11 players from both teams got on the board in the first seven minutes. 26:35 Ramla after a particularly offensive first quarter.

Ramla continued to increase her lead by simply not being able to miss even at the beginning of the second quarter. Her percentages, in the paint and outside the arc, were incredible. She also took advantage of Jerusalem’s many turnovers to produce easy points, and Daniel Reber did what she wanted in the paint. But Jerusalem was not going to give up in what could have become the last game of the season in Malha.

Baron was accurate from outside the arc, Jerusalem took advantage of the free throws, and effective steals in defense led to bursts and easy baskets by Noor Kiyof, Briana Richardson and Shir Tirosh. These reversed the result and gave Jerusalem the advantage, despite Baron’s third foul. 49:55 for Yerushalayim in the half.

The level of defense increased at the beginning of the third quarter. It’s not that the attacks flowed less, but both teams realized that a few stops could prove to be critical in such a close game and forced each other to lose the ball. Baron grabbed two balls within a minute, Ramla stopped Jerusalem’s interior game only with fouls and Richardson’s basket opened up a double-digit lead for the locals.

But it was precisely then, trailing by 11 points, that Ramla took matters into her own hands. She closed better for the rebound, got 9 points from Angela Tejaxon, 6 Gott, and points in the paint from Mckins and Jenny Sims and squeezed the fourth foul from Bron. Only 68:73 for the team from the capital towards the last quarter.

The one who opened the last quarter when she was in the zone is Aden Rothberg. Ramla’s captain scored five consecutive points and regained the advantage with a 2:9 run in the first two minutes. On the other side, Shir Tirosh missed easy shots and Richardson tried her luck from half distance and didn’t hit. Ramla took a six-point lead, but Jerusalem’s excellent defense in the next few minutes made the game close. An unsportsmanlike foul by Jordan Gott and the loss of the tenth ball by Sims translated into points on the other side and a 4-point lead for Jerusalemites, less than two minutes to the end.

Elitzur Ramla against Hapoel Lev Jerusalem in the final series (photo: Danny Maron, courtesy of the director of the Women’s Basketball Super League)

But a basket and a foul by Rotberg, and two more free throws by her after Baron’s fifth foul gave Ramla the advantage again. Eight seconds to go, when she was ahead by a point, Ramla lost the ball. Jerusalem came back from a timeout knowing that its season was on the line, but Shir Tirosh got in trouble and released a difficult three-pointer, which spilled out. 94:95 to Ramla at the end of another amazing game, which brings her to 0:2 in the series and brings her within winning distance of a third championship in a row.

Scored for Jerusalem: Tirosh 30, Richardson 23, Carey 17, Kioff 13, Baron 11
Ramla scored: Rothberg 33, Reber 17, Sims 16, Tompkins 10, Jackson 9, Gott 6, and Torrey 4.