Israel Women's D1 Semifinals 1/2008 - Elizur Ramla 72, Maccabi Ramat Hen 71

There are only four teams left and in the semifinals, each of those teams will be paired off in a best-of-five series to determine the two finalists who will compete for the Israel championship. Despite having home field in the first game, Maccabi Ramat Hen falls to visiting Elizur Ramla 72-71 to fall behind 0-1 in their semifinal series.

Game Two of the semifinals will be played on Thursday. The box score is here.

It was a close game in the first half, with visiting Elizur Ramla leading by one point after 10 minutes and carrying a 34-33 lead into halftime. Elizur Ramla had a good third quarter and led 53-44 going into the final 10 minutes. Maccabi Ramat Hen would stage a comeback and begin closing the gap, finally taking a 71-68 lead with 40 seconds to play in the game. However, Ramla would go back up 72-71 on a Sheri Sam basket with 18 seconds to play.

Shay Doron attempted a three-pointer at the buzzer for Ramat Hen...but missed.

Ramat Hen only hit 38 percent of its attempted field goals, compared to 47 percent from Elizur Ramla. Ramla also had a 36-32 overall rebounding advantage. However, Ramla turned the ball over 19 times and sent Ramat Hen to the free throw line 27 times - where they hit 24 shots for an 89 percent free throw percentage.

Ramat Hen's bench contributed just two points in the loss. Ramla's bench scored 17 of Ramla's 72 total points.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

LaToya Pringle: 18 points and 14 rebounds. 12-for-13 in free throws.
Ivory Latta: 19 points, 2 rebounds.
Ayana Walker: 16 points and 8 rebounds...but 7 turnovers.
Shay Doron: 11 points.

Elizur Ramla

Tamara Moore: 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals for the former Houston Comets player.
Sheri Sam: 16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 turnovers for the Detroit Shock player.
Ina Gourevitch: 10 points.