Israel Women's D1 Semifinals 4/2008 - Elizur Ramla 79, Maccabi Ramat Hen 78

To Ivory Latta, losing still hurts.

Down two games to one in a best-of-five semifinals, Maccabi Ramat Hen would have to travel to Elizur Ramla's home court to force a deciding Game Five. It all came down to the final 2.3 seconds of the game, but Maccabi Ramat Hen fell just short 79-78.

Elizur Ramla goes to the finals. For Maccabi Ramat Hen - and Ivory Latta - the season is over.

The box score is here. A gallery of game images can be seen here.

It was a very tight game between both teams. Elizur Ramla led 23-21 after the first ten minutes, and the home team only led by one point at halftime 46-45. Maccabi Ramat Hen managed to hold Elizur Ramla to just 12 points in the third quarter and led 61-58.

Unfortunately, Elizur Ramla began to fight back and began to close the gap. Katia Levitzky hit a 3-pointer with three minutes to go to close the gap from six points to three points. With the score 78-78 and only 2.3 seconds left, Tamara Moore of Elizur Ramla got the opportunity for two free throws. She hit the first one to put Elizur Ramla up 79-78, but missed the second one...deliberately. The final rebound went to...Elizur Ramla, and that was all they needed.

It's been that way all year. Close games between Elizur Ramla and Maccabi Ramat Hen have generally tilted in the direction of Ramla, and this game was no different.

Maccabi Ramat Hen shot 47 percent in this game, but Elizur Ramla hit 43 percent of their field goal attempts. Both teams rebounded at the same rate - there wasn't much rebounding going on (28 for Ramat Hen vs. 27 for Ramla). An important stat in the box score was the fact that Ramla had 19 assists to Ramat Hen's 12 assists. Ramat Hen went 20-for-27 at the free throw line and Ramla went 15-for-18.

Maccabi Ramat Hen got 18 points from its bench, more than usual - Ramla only got nine points from its bench players. However, it wasn't enough for Maccabi Ramat Hen. I wonder when Ivory Latta will be coming back to Atlanta....

Elizur Ramla

Katia Levitsky: 20 points, 6 rebounds.
Tamara Moore: 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists. Moore last played for the Houston Comets.
Sheri Sam: 13 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists for the Detroit Shock player.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Shay Doron: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists.
LaToya Pringle: 20 points, 7 rebounds.
Ivory Latta: 8 points and 4 steals. 2-for-9 shooting. 3-for-6 at the free throw line. It definitely wasn't a good day for Ivory Latta.

Israel Women's D1 Semifinals 3/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 71, Elizur Ramla 63

Abiola Wabara tries to turn the corner on Shay Doron.

Ivory Latta's season was almost over - down 0-2 in a best of three series, so if they lost today, it was all over. Playing on their home ground, Maccabi Ramat Hen avoided the three-game sweep with a 71-63 victory.

The box score is here.

It was a hard-fought win for Ramat Hen as according to safsal.il, Ramla played some of their worst basketball. Elizur Ramla led 16-13 after the first quarter, but were held to just nine points in the second as Maccabi Ramat Hen took a 34-25 lead into halftime. In the third quarter Ramla whittled away at the lead to close the gap to 52-47. However, Macccabi Ramat Hen managed to win both the fourth quarter and their first game of the semifinal series.

Despite the win, Ramat Hen only hit 34 percent of their field goal attempts, compared to a 39 percent success rate for Elizur Ramla - neither team was hot. Ramat Hen won the battle of rebounds 42-35. Ramla would turn the ball over 17 times and send Ramat Hen to the free throw line 27 times, where they would hit 23 of their shots.

Ramat Hen usually doesn't get much help from its bench. However, Ramat Hen picked up 19 points from the bench compared to only nine points for Elizur Ramla.

Elsewhere, Electra Ramat Hasharon moved to the finals, sweeping Raanana Hertzeliya in three games.

Ramat Hem

Ayana Walker: 14 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals.
LaToya Pringle: 11 points, 14 rebounds.
Ivory Latta: 11 points, 4 steals. 3-for-13 shooting, but 5-for-5 at the free throw line.
Shay Doron: 11 points. Fouled out.

Elizur Ramla

Sheri Sam: The Detroit Shock's Sams scored 21 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Tamara Moore: 10 points and 11 rebounds. 5 turnovers.
Ina Gourevitch: 11 points. The former Houston Comets player would foul out.

Israel Women's D1 Semifinals 2/2008 - Elizur Ramla 95, Maccabi Ramat Hen 91 (2 OT)

Maccabi Ramat Hen had lost their home field advantage with a loss in the previous game, so they needed a win to get back up on top in the best-of-five semi-finals series with Elizur Ramla. The two teams ended up tied 71-71 in regulation, and it took two overtimes for Ramla to beat Ramat Hen to take a 2-0 lead in the best of five series.

Any future loss by Maccabi Ramat Hen will eliminate them from post-season contention. The box score is here. A good writeup of the game is here.

Visiting Ramat Hen would start the game with a 24-15 lead over Ramla after 10 minutes, and it would be home team's job to catch up. Ramat Hen still led Ramla 38-34 at halftime, and both teams played evenly in the third quarter. At one point, Rabat Hen led 64-51 with eight minutes leff in the game, but Ramla battled back with a 13-0 run. Ramla was able to make up the four-point deficit to tie the game 71-71 with 50 seconds to go on a 3-pointer by Olena Ogorodnikova. Five minutes later, the game was still tied 78-78, sending the game into a second overtime where Ramat Hen just fell apart.

Shay Doron had a harsh assessment of her team. "We're losers. We had this game in our hands twice at least. We don't know how to win. Stupid decisions, misses under the basket. Instead of stepping up and saying we're winning this game in the last six minutes, we made a mistake on offense and a mistake on defense and that's the way it ended. We didn't deserve to win tonight because we had the game and we gave it away".

Ramat Hen hit 47 percent of their attempted field goals, compared to just 41 percent for Elizur Ramla - but Ramla went 13-for-37 from behind the 3-point line. Each team had similar free turnover numbers and free throw numbers.

Neither team's bench contributed much. Ramla's benchwarmers contributed 10 points and Maccabi Ramat Hen's contributed 12. That left the 10 starters on each side to play a lot of minutes. Ramat Hen could still come back - as Orli Klinger writes, last year Ramat Hen had a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series...and lost the following three games.

Elizur Ramla

Olena Ogorodnikova: 25 points and 11 rebounds with 3 assists.
Sheri Sam: 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 rebounds. Sam plays for the Detroit Shock.
Tamera Moore: 15 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for the second of three double-doubles in this game. Moore is a former player for the Houston Comets.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Ayana Walker: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists.
Ivory Latta: 24 points, 4 assists.
LaToya Pringle: 17 points and 9 rebounds. If she had one more rebound, it would have been the game's fourth double-double.
Shay Doron: 16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists.

Elizur Ramla-Maccabi Ramat Hen Photos

This must be some new meaning to setting a screen.

Some photos of Game 1 of the semifinals match between Elizur Ramla and Maccabi Ramat Hen in the Israel Women's D1 League can be found here. Bask in the photgraphic goodness! (There are even some Ivory Latta pics!)

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.

Israel Women's D1 23/2008 - Elizur Ramla 65, Maccabi Ramat Hen 61

Ivory Latta and friends have the best seat in the house.

From what I can tell, this is the final game in the "Upper Playoffs" which determines which four teams go to the Israel Women's D1 Semifinals. Maccabi Ramat Hen was pretty much assured a second place finish but Elizur Ramla was fighting for third place. The 65-61 home win gave them a third place finish, which means they'll be meeting Ramat Hen again instead of first place finisher Ramat Hasharon in the semi-finals.

The box score is here. A writeup of the game is here and a photo gallery is here.

Ramla led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter, but none of Ramat Hen's bench players had scored - as it turned out, only the five Ramat Hen starters would score any points for their team in the entire game. Ramla led 33-29 at the half, but Ramat Hen began to come back in the third quarter when a 3-pointer by Shay Doron closed Ramat Hen to within two points, 48-46, to end the third. With three minutes to play, Ramat Hen staged another comeback with another 3-pointer by Doron to close to 60-59, but Ramla held onto the lead for the win.

Elizur Ramla hit 44 percent of their attempted field goals compared to 39 percent from Ramat Hen. Ramla went an astonishing 0-for-16 from 3-point field goal range. Elizur Ramla's post play was terrible and Ramat Hen was outrebounded 31-18, but Maccabi Ramat Hen gave away the advantage with 21 turnovers as opposed to just six from Elizur Ramla. Ramat Hen was sent to the free throw line 27 times and hit an incredible 25 shots for a 93 percent free throw precentage.

And yet, Maccabi Ramat Hen managed to lose. If they just had some help from their bench...!

Elizur Ramla

Sheri Sam: 16 points, 3 assists, 4 steals. 7 for 14 shooting for the Detroit Shock player.
Olena Ogorodnikova: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals.
Tamara Moore: 4 points, 4 rebounds and 5 steals in 37 minutes of play for the former member of the Houston Comets.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Shay Doron: 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting, and 3-for-8 from 3-point range.
Ivory Latta: 15 points, 7 rebounds. Went 0-for-7 from 3-point range but went 9-for-9 in free throws.
LaToya Pringle: 15 points and 10 rebounds for the games only double-double. However, she had 9 turnovers.
Ayana Walker: 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Pictures from Ramat Hen-Raanana Hertzeliya

The huge block by LaToya Pringle that kept Raanana Hertzelyia from tying the game in the last seconds.

Safsal has provided a photo gallery of the recent Maccabi Ramat Hen-Raanana Hertzeliya game that Ramat Hen won 72-70.

The link is here. Dive into the world of Women's basketball in Israel. There is more than one Ivory Latta pic in there.

Israel Women's D1 22/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 72, Raanana Hertzeliya 70

Okay. I was wrong about who Maccabi Ramat Hen's opponent, but it's pretty hard to figure out the post-season in Israel. I still believe that the top six teams are playing some sort of post-season round robin to determine who goes to the semi-finals. According to the writeup at safsal.co.il, Ramat Hen's 72-70 win over Raanana Hertzeliya virtually assures that Ivory Latta's Maccabi Ramat Hen team will clinch second place.

The box score here.

According to the quarter-by-quarter score, it was a very close game. Ramat Hen took a 19-16 lead at the end of the first quarter, and managed to hold that three point lead at halftime, 33-30. However, in the third quarter Raanana Hertzeliya closed the gap and the score was tied 48-48 going into the final quarter.

It is implied at the safsal web site that Noa Ganor sank two free throws in the fourth to put Ramat Hen up 72-70. LaToya Pringle must have blocked the final shot taken by Raanana Hertzeliya to win the game.

Raanana Hertzeliya hit 44 percent of their field goal attempts compared to 41 percent from Ramat Hen. Neither team rebounded particularly well, but Ramat Hen had more offensive rebounds, by a factor of 12 to 7. Raanana Hertzeliya had slightly more turnovers. I suspect that the fourth of Dean Oliver's keys to the game was paramount - Ramat Hen visited the free throw line 24 times to just 9 for Raanana Hertzeliya, and we know Noa Ganor's free throws were particularly important.

Another odd fact: 66 of Ramat Hen's 69 total points were scored by the five original starters.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Ivory Latta: 20 points on 7-for-18 shooting.
Ayana Walker: 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Shay Doron: 11 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists.
Michal Epstein: 15 points, 6 rebounds.
LaToya Pringle: 4 points, 8 rebounds.

Raanana Hertzeliya

Temeka Johnson: 24 points, 4 rebounds, 6 turnovers from the Los Angeles Sparks guard.
Kelly Schumacher: 16 points, 8 rebounds for the backup Detroit Shock center.
Charde Houston: 4 points in 24 minutes played for the Minnesota Lynx forward.

Unable to find any pictures. You can find video here, but guess what? You can only view it if you live in Israel!

Israel Women's D1 21/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 79, Elizur Holon 69

I believe that the top six teams are playing a round robin, with the top four of those teams advancing to the semi-finals. It appears that Maccabi Ramat Hen is still alive in the postseason with a 79-69 win at home against Elizur Holon.

The box score is here. A brief game writeup can be found here.

LaToya Pringle has been in and out of the lineup with her recent knee surgery, and for the first half of the game, she was back. It showed in a 47-34 halftime score, but Elizur Holon began to close in. They finished the third quarter with Ramat Hen leading 64-57, and scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to take a 65-64 lead. Ramat Hen started a 7-0 run but Elizur Holon answered with four points of its own to close to 71-69. However, those were their final points as Elizur Holon was held scoreless over the last three minutes.

Ramat Hen hit 47 percent of their field goals, with Elizur Holon hitting 39 percent. Having LaToya back must have helped, as Ramat Hen won the rebounding battle 37 to 29, but they turned over the ball 19 times compared to just 11 for Elizur Holon. One problem with Elizur Holon was that they sent Ramat Hen to the free throw line 23 times, which game Ramat Hen 16 points on free throws alone.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Ivory Latta: 11 points and 3 rebounds. Part of the problem was 1-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.
Shay Doron: 19 points.
LaToya Pringle: 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Ayana Walker: 6 points and 15 rebounds.

Elizur Holon

Edwina Brown: 18 points and 11 rebounds. Brown last played for the Houston Comets in 2006.
Brooke Reves: 10 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals. I believe Reves graduated from Nebraska.
Edneisha Curry: Zero points in 3 minutes. Curry last played for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2005.

Israel Women's D1 20/2008 - Electra Ramat Hasharon 93, Maccabi Ramat Hen 58

I'm going to go ahead with the convention that safsal.co.il uses and call this "Round 20", even though it's actually the second game of the post-season. I have been unable to decipher how the Israel post-season works, so if Ramat Han gets eliminated I might not know it until they simply...disappear.

The box score is here. A game writeup is here.

Ivory Latta is quoted as saying: "I don't know, I have no clue, but we definitely didn't have it today." "Clue" is misspelled as "club"...but maybe it wasn't a misspelling. LaToya Pringle was cleared to play but she still has problems with her knee. Shay Doron was in Europe participating in the Euroleague All-Star Game.

Electra Ramat Hasharon won every quarter of the game. The back half of the game was a particular poor one for Ramat Hen, where they scored only 25 points. In the fourth quarter, both sides were just mailing it in. Maccabi Ramat Hen's starters contributed 50 points, but the bench contributed only 12 points.

It was Electra Ramat Hasharon's shooting that sealed the deal. They hit 56 percent of their attempted field goals compared to just 37 percent for Ramat Hen. Both teams rebounded equally with Ramat Hen getting the greater number of offensive rebounds. However, Ramat Hen turned the ball over 20 times compared to just 12 for Electra Ramat Hasharon. Electra Ramat Hasharon would go to the free throw line 15 times and hit 13 of their attempted free throws.

Electra Ramat Hasharon

Jia Perkins: 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals.
Ebony Hoffman: 14 points and 6 rebounds in just 15 minutes of play.
Lindsay Sklar: 3 points in 5 minutes of play.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Ayana Walker: 24 points and 13 rebounds for the game's only double-double.
Ivory Latta: 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting. Poor Ivory turned the ball over eight times.
LaToya Pringle: 10 points and 8 rebounds in 15 minutes of play.
Shay Doron: Did not play.

Israel Women's D1 Upper Round 1/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 90, Maccabi Ashdod 79

From what I can understand, the ten teams of Israel's women's league all participate in the postseason - the top six teams fight for the championship and the bottom four fight for survival. Thus the "upper round" designation that Maccabi Ramat Hen finds itself in.

I waited all of yesterday for a box score but didn't get one. The best I can do is this nice writeup from Orli Klinger at safsal.co.il.

I'll try to hit the high points. First, Tamara James was released from Ramat Hen after their final regular season game. Why? Because LaToya Pringle is out with a knee injury and Ramat Hen realized just how weak they were in the post. Ayana Walker, a forward who last played for the Detroit Shock in 2007, took James's place.

In a rematch with Maccabi Ashdod - the team that beat Ramat Hen in the last game in the regular season and knocked them out of first place - Ashdod started out strong in the first half (just like the previous game) but this time, Ramat Hen found their way back.

Ramat Hen had a bad first half. According to Ivory Latta, "The first half things didn’t go our way, we couldn’t even hit the ocean out there." Ramat Hen was 1-for-13 in 3-point shooting and Ashdod led 48-41 in the third quarter.

Suddenly, Ramat Hen relocated their 3-point shooting. Latta hit back-to-back threes and Shay Doron hit a three to cut Ashdod's lead to one. From there, it was a seesaw battle until the fourth quarter when Noa Ganor broke a 72-72 tie with four minutes to go with a three pointer. Two more quick baskets by Ramat Hen, and they took a 79-72 lead that Ashdod wasn't able to overcome.

Ramat Hen

Ivory Latta: 22 points
Shay Doron: 21 points
Ayana Walker: 10 points

Ashdod

Natasha Lacy: 18 points from the former UTEP player who graduate in 2008.
Sherill Baker: 16 points from the Indiana Fever player.
Tasha Humphrey: 15 points from the Washington Mystics center.

Israel Women's D1 18/2008 - Maccabi Ashdod 102, Maccabi Ramat Hen 89

Supposedly, yesterday was the final day of the Israel Women's D1 Regular season.

Six teams go to the playoffs. The playoffs start March 5th with a post-season round robin. I don't know if the round robin is used to determine which teams are the finalists, or if the round robin is used by itself to determine a champion.

The upcoming round-robin games for Maccabi Ramat Hen this week:

Thursday: Home vs. Maccabi Ashdod
Sunday: Away vs. Electra Ramat Hasharon

I don't have a boxscore for Maccabil Ashdod's 102-89 win over Maccabi Ramat Hen, but here are a few facts about it:

1) The win knocked Maccabi Ramat Hen to 14-4, into a tie for second place. Agh. Here are the final standings of the top six teams:

Electra Ramat Hasharon 15-3
Maccabi Ramat Hen 14-4
Raanana Hertzeliya 14-4
Elizur Ramla 13-5
Maccabi Ashdod 11-7
Elizur Holon 9-9

2) Ramat Hen lost LaToya Pringle to some sort of knee injury. We don't know how serious the injury is yet.

3) From the website, here are the highlights:

Maccabi Ashdod

Tasha Humphrey: 34 points. Humphrey is a center for the Washington Mystics.
Natasha Lacy: 23 points and 14 assists. Lacy graduated from UTEP in 2008.
Sherill Baker: 19 points. Baker is a guard for the Indiana Fever.
Jennifer Fleischer: One point for the University of Pennsylvania graduate.

Maccabi Ramat Hen

Ivory Latta: 22 points
Shay Doron: 16 points
Tamara James: 16 points
LaToya Pringle: 4 points

If I find any pictures or anything, I'll post them.

A New Pic?

This might or not be a pic of Maccabi Ramat Hen celebrating its 100-60 win over Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv. I'm a bit suspicious, as I thought Ramat Hen was playing at home, so shouldn't they be wearing white?

Then again, it might have been at Tel Aviv. According to the Israel media, only 100 people attended this game.

Israel Women's D1 16/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 73, Elizur Ramla 70

Latta was perfect at the free throw line for Ramat Hen.

Not a good sign when you get the first game on your week's schedule wrong - it appears that the game happened yesterday, and not today. And I had the wrong team penciled in. Oh well, for Atlanta Dream fans that won't matter as Maccabi Ramat Hen (13-3) came back from behind to win 73-70 against home team Elizur Ramla (11-5).

The win puts Ramat Hen tied for first with Electra Ramat Hasharon with just five games to go in the season. The box score is here.

Visiting Ramat Hen took a 21-19 lead and edged out to a 41-36 lead at halftime. They began to extend their lead, at one point leading by 12 points early in the third quarter. It was then that Elizur Ramla woke up, and started their run. They led 58-57 at the end of three quarters and led by six points (70-64) with just 2:30 left in the game. Shay Doron of Ramat Hen would hit a 3-pointer to start a nine point run as the home team was shut out by Ramat Hen for the rest of the game.

Home team Ramla only hit 39 percent of their field goals compared to Ramat Hen's 48 percent. In terms of offensive rebounding, however, Ramla crushed Ramat Hen, getting 10 offensive rebounds compared to Ramat Hen's pitiful three. Ramla would also only turn the ball over 10 times, keeping them in the game.

Undoubtedly, the clincher for the visitors was that they were sent to the free throw line 24 times. Furthermore, they hit 20 of their shots, an 83 percent free throw percentage. Two Ramla players would end up fouling out.

The home team was led by Abiola Wabara, who scored 24 points, including 12-for-13 free throw shooting. Matalya Belvin, a graduate of NAIA Langston University, scored 13 points for Ramla but was one of the two players to foul out. Tamara Moore, who last played for the Houston Comets in 2007, scored 12 points for the home team with eight rebounds and four assists.

Two players from Ramat Hen would break the 20-point mark. Ivory Latta would score 23 points, hit four 3-point shots and go 7-for-7 at the free throw line for the visitors. LaToya Pringle would scored 22 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double. Tamara James scored 12 points in forty minutes of play and Shay Doron scored 10 points.

Ramla's bench would score only six points. Ramat Hen's bench would only score 16. You don't need much depth in the Israel Women's D1, it seems.

Israel Women's D1 14/2008 - Electra Ramat Hasharon 80, Maccabi Ramat Hen 66

All Ivory Latta (#7) can do is watch Laine Selwyn (#5) go.

According to the writeup at Safsal, "being the underdog is important when these two teams meet". Ramat Hen (11-3) thought it had insulated itself against an upset. They were playing at home and had just acquired Shay Doron, a former player for the New York Liberty and the only native-born Israel ever to play WNBA ball. Unfortunately, none of this was enough as Ramat Hen was upset at home 80-66 by Electra Ramat (11-3)

The box score is here. With only four games left in the regular season, the Israeli Women's D1 League faces a four-way tie for first place.

Both teams were tied after the first quarter, and Electra Ramat edged out to a 36-32 halftime lead. It was in the second half, however, where Electra Ramat was decisive, holding Ramat Hen to just 11 third quarter point and topping Ramat Hen's 23 points with a 26 point fourth quarter effort.

Electra Ramat had the better shooting day, hitting 46 percent of their field goals to Ramat Hen's 40 percent. Rebounding was more or less even but Electra Ramat grabbed 11 offensive rebounds compared to just six for Ramat Hen. Undoubtedly, however, the key to Electra Ramat's victory was the fact that they only committed six turnovers for the entire game. If you can keep the ball in your hands, you'll likely win and Electra Ramat did everything possible to make that happen.

Shay Doron had a good homecoming, with a 19 point game where she shot 9-for-10 from the field. Tamara James would also score 19 points and Michal Epstein would break into double digits with 12 points.

Part of the loss could theoretically be laid at Ivory Latta's feet. She only scored eight points in 38 minutes of play and was a horrible 3-for-12 from the field. Ice cold.

Four players scored in double digits for Electra Ramat, including Jia Perkins of the Chicago Sky with 17 points and Ebony Hoffman of the Indiana Fever with 12 points and seven rebounds. Tatyana Troina would also contribute 16 points and Naomi Kolodny would score 15 points in the upset win.

Israel Women's D1 13/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 104, Maccabi Tel Kabir 81

Ivory Latta (#7) and the rest of her teammates celebrate.

For both teams in the Israeli league, it was the same old, same old. Tel Kabir (0-13) hasn't won a game all season and after today, they're still winless. Ramat Hen (11-2) was on top of the Israel Women's D1 League and is still on top of it after a decisive 104-81 win on the road.

The box score is here.

So far, there really isn't much to say about this game. Tel Kabir actually hung in during the first quarter and was only down 28-25 after the first 10 minutes. But then, the slide began. They slid to being 14 points behind at halftime, 56-42, and during the third quarter they were blown out 27-8. Tel Kabir managed to score 31 points in the final quarter, but Ramat Hen managed 21 points of their own and by that time the deficit for Tel Kabir was much more than ten points.

Ramat Hen was certainly more accurate that the home club, hitting 51 percent of their baskets compared to 43 percent for the winless Tel Kabir. Ramat Hen also dominated on the boards, outrebounding the home team 47-35 as well as winning the offensive rebounding battle. The visitors were sent to the free throw line 22 times, and Ramat Hen hit 18 of their shots for a further advantage over Tel Kabir that they most likely didn't need.

Carrying the burden for Tel Kabir was Brooke Reeves, who scored 30 points and 13 rebounds for Tel Kabir. You might congratulate her on those amazing numbers, but only six players took the floor for Tel Kabir. (Only seven would take the floor for Rabat Hen.) Reeves was a graduate of Kansas University and played for Aris Holargos in Greece earlier this year. I suspect that when the Greek players walked out of Aris Holargos for not getting paid, she either walked out too or was bought out by Tel Kabir. (This explains why Aris Holargos is in a tailspin in Greek play.)

Oregon State graduate Shannon Howell scored 26 points and nine assists for Tel Kabir and Dominique Carter, a graduate of San Francisco, scored 10 points.

For the women of Ramat Hen, Michal Epstein led with a double-double of 29 points and 10 rebounds. LaToya Pringle had already hit 19 points and 12 rebounds for her down double-double before fouling out after playing 25 minutes. Ivory Latta scored 27 points, htting six out of 10 3-point field goals in an amazing long range game. Tamara James would also contribute six points.

Maybe somehow, I'll be able to find some pictures to post, nu?

Israel D1 12/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 88, Raanana Hertzeliya 68

Before this game there were three teams tied for the top in the Israel D1 Women's League - Ramat Hen (10-2) and Raanana Hertzeliya (9-3) were two of them. Even though they might have been equal in the win-loss column, they weren't equal on the court yesterday as Ramat Hen beat Hertzleiya with ease, 88-68.

There are only two teams currently tied for first place - Ramat Hen and Elizur Ramla.

The box score is here.

Ramat Hen jumped out to a 23-14 lead after the first quarter and was able to establish an 11-point lead at halftime, 45-34. Hertzeliya closed to within eight points at the end of the third quarter, 61-53, but Ramat Hen held the visitors to just 15 fourth quarter points to lead the outcome in no doubt.

Hertzeliya shot 43 percent from the floor, but they were no match for Ramat Hen which shot 57 percent. Hertzeliya only had five offensive rebounds in the entire game. Both teams had very few turnovers (Ramat Hen 9, Hertzeliya 10) but Hertzeliya sent Ramat Hen to the free throw line 25 times and Ramat Hen earned 18 points in the form of converted free throws.

LaToya Pringle had an amazing game for Ramat Hen. She had 27 points and 20 rebounds for a "twenties double-double". Tamara James added 22 points for the home team.

And how did Ivory Latta do in her first game in regular season play? Not bad. She shot 5-for-8 and hit both of her free throws, scoring 14 points and four assists total.

Leading Hertzeliya was Sheri Sam with 21 points and seven rebounds. Sam currently plays for the WNBA champion Detroit Shock. Temeka Johnson, a member of the Los Angeles Sparks, contributed 16 points and four assists to the losing cause. Katia Abramzon would also score in double digits for the visitors with 10 pointss and four rebounds.

Finding pictures isn't that easy, although I might have some info about a video clip in a later post. Doron Berger explains that part of the problem might be a generalized lack of interest in women's BB in Israel.

Game against the Maccabi Ramat Chen, Mhzikt new trophy, was attended by 120 viewers. If one considers ומקורבים are invited to come to something like zero fans.

I don't know if he's an objective observer or just a hater. We know that in the US the line between the two is sometimes murky. (Look up the definition of "sympathy troll".)

Israel D1 11/2008 - Maccabi Ramat Hen 91, Hapoel Tel Aviv 42

Maccabi Ramat Hen (9-2) was hoping to break the logjam of 8-2 teams at the top of the Israel Women's D1 League. They're still waiting for Shay Doron, but it didn't matter - this was the first regular season game with Ivory Latta, and the opponent was short-handed (I don't know why) Hapoel Tel Aviv (2-9). They proceeded to whip up on the home team 91-42.

The box score is here.

What's to say? The high point for Tel Aviv was when they scored 13 points in the first quarter - but Ramat Hen had scored 27. If there was any thought of sportsmanship, it would have to be in the fact that 35 of Ramat Hen's points were scored off the bench.

This game reminds me of the first game that the Dream played against the Sparks in Atlanta - Ramat Hen shot 54 percent to 26 percent shooting from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was rebounded by 50-29 - that's a college basketball score, North Carolina vs. Podunk State. Tel Aviv only got a chance to shoot two free throws - and only hit one of them.

A further complication was the fact that Tel Aviv only had six players. Leading - and really carrying - Tel Aviv was Diamond Rogers. Rogers graduated from the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2008 and scored 24 points, with 9 for 20 shooting, hitting five 3-point field goals and pulling down eight rebounds. However, no other Tel Aviv player broke single digits.

For Ramat Hen, there were a lot of points and minutes to spread around. Michal Epstein was the point leader with 17 points and seven rebounds. Tamara James scored 13 points for Ramat Hen. James last played for the Washington Mystics in 2007. LaToya Pringle scored 10 points, eight rebounds, and four assists for the visitors. Pringle is currently playing for the Phoenix Mercury.

How well did Ivory Latta do? She played 18 minutes, and scored 10 points and six assists, taking six shots. That's a good debut for limited minutes.

As for Shay Doron, her joining Ramat Hen has hit a snag. Her old club doesn't want to give her up and is appealing to FIBA. We'll find out two things in the future: a) the conclusion to this drama, and b) how well Israel's news supplies game pictures.

Things That Went on While I Was Enjoying Christmas

1) The WCBA and Translate Google have gone to war. At least, I think that happened. Translate Google refuses to touch that boxscore of that Zhejiang-Beijing game.

2) I got two DVDs of college basketball games from Ethan Johnson, the proprietor of ethmar.com. Haven't had a chance to sit down and watch them yet, but you know that's coming.

3) Ivory Latta has been tearing it up in Israel:

a) During the semifinals of the Israeli Cup - a mid-season competiton among the best teams in Israeli women's basketball - she scored 23 points in a 78-72 win over Elizur Holon to move Ramat Hen on to the finals.

b) In the finals, they give the ball to Ivory for the money shot, and she hits the final shot which wins the game for Ramat Hen and grants Ramat Hen the Israeli Cup with a 72-71 victory over Ramat Hasharon.

It was Ramat Hen's first cup in a quarter century, and it took place on Christmas. I suppose if you were going to give Ivory Latta a Christmas present, it would be "you'll hit the winning shot and bring victory to a team that hasn't tasted it in over twenty years".

c) p_d_swanson posts this pic, which he swipes from the Israel League and which I swipe from him over at RebKell:



That isn't Ivory Latta in the foreground, is it?

4) Painel do Basquete Feminino posts this pic, which they swipe from encancha.com, and which I swipe from them:



And they gave the Santa hat to Erika de Souza. That's one tall Santa!

Israeli Cup Quarterfinals - Ramat Hen 82, Tel Aviv 70

Women's basketball in Israel is currently on its winter break, but they believe in basketball during the holidays. The "Israeli Cup" is held in the mid-season break and Ivory Latta got no rest after being signed by Maccabi Ramat Hen from her former Turkish club Ceyhan. She put in a great effort to help lead Ramat Hen to a quarterfinals win.

The boxscore is here.

Ramat Hen led 25-13 at the end of the first quarter and led 41-30 at halftime. According to the writeup, the biggest lead of the game for Ramat Hen was 20 points and there wasn't much of a chance for Tel Aviv to stage a comeback. Everyone got a chance to play in the second half and the goal was to keep Ramat Hen's starters free from fatigue.

Ramat Hen shot 44 percent from the field compared to 37 percent shooting from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv, however, outrebounded Ramat Hen on the offensive boards by a factor of 18 to 12. Neither team really turned over the ball, and even though Tel Aviv was sent to the free throw line 22 times, they only made 14 shots - Ramat Hen shot 13-for-17 from the line.

LaToya Pringle had an amazing 18 points, 18 rebounds double-double for Ramat Hen. Pringle served as a backup F/C for the Phoenix Mercury this year. Tamara James, who last played for the Washington Mystics in 2007, would score 20 points and six rebounds. Ivory Latta, just getting off the plane it seems, would score 18 points but take 22 shots (16 FG, 6 FT) to do it. However, she had eight assists, not too bad when you're serving as point for a brand new team.

Tel Aviv would only play eight players and their leading scorers would be foreigners. Alex Anderson, a graduate of UT Chattanooga, would score 20 points and 14 rebounds with four assists, a second double-double in the game. Diamond Rogers would score 21 points and 7 rebounds - Rogers graduated from Alabama-Birmingham this year. Tierra Willson, a graduate of Fresno State, would contribute 12 points in the Tel Aviv loss.