|
|
Road Rules: Ramla wins Game 3
Lior Klinger
,04/08/2012 |
Tanisha Wright scored 33 points, 17 of them in the 4th quarter, to lead Ramla to a big 72-67 win at Ramat Hasharon and a 2-1 advantage in the series going into game 4 in Ramla.
Ramat Hasharon 67 - Ramla 72
Boxscore
In a terrific and fasinating playoff game, Adan Inbar & Ramla enjoyed excellent zone defense, a great game from Amber Harris who finally made an impact in the series and an incredible performance from Tanisha Wright. Wright nailed 3 threes in a row during the final quarter to give Ramla a 60 - 54 lead, with 5 minutes to play. Ramat Hasharon came within 2 but couldn't get the lead, and lost to Ramla at home for the 4th time this season.
Wright's 33 points mark a career high for her in an Israeli regular season or playoff game, topping the pervious mark of 31 points which she scored in 2007 when she played for Raanana Hertzeliya. Her career high in Israel was set also in 2007, in a win over Ramla in the Israeli Cup 1/4 finals when she scored 42. Wright was unaware of the 17 points she scored in the 4th, she couldn't care less.
"We needed this game, it was the most important of the series. Now we can go back home and refocus on the things we did well and what we need to improve. We have a chance to take it at home", said Wright. "We saw film of what we didn’t do so well in game 2, we just weren’t there. Today we focused more on defense and other than that three that drove me crazy [Perkins hit a 3 with less than 30 seconds to go], we allowed 64 points [17 less than in game 2]. We had a problem that when our offense wasn’t working we relaxed on defense, tonight we didn’t do that", she explained.
Ramla definitely looked different tonight compared to game 2. They were first to every loose ball and played great defense (15 steals, nearly twice as much as they normally average). They were very close to holding Jia Perkins to 14 points, they stopped Alysha Clark on 11 points and made Amber Holt vanish. "We felt bad about the previous game, especially since we should have lost by a lot more than 12", said Adan Inbar. "I don't know how to explain it but we can't seem to break away in our good minutes and Ramat Hasharon doesn't break away in our bad minutes. Today we didn't have a lot of bad minutes", he continued. "I'm sure everyone will talk about Tanisha now but as far as I'm concerned Amber Harris & Michal Epstein made the difference today, everyone that came in off the bench fought hard. Playoff isn't just about basketball, but tonight we actually played some basketball".
Ramla played a lot better than Ramat Hasharon in the first half, forced 10 turnovers (with 9 steals) but still led only 17-11 after the 1st quarter and 31-26 at the half. A big 3rd quarter from Harris still didn't help Ramla build a lead, Reid & Perkins kept Ramat Hasharon down just 46-47 heading into the 4th quarter.
The final 10 minutes were simply 'The Wright Show' as she scored 17 that went along with 6 points from Le'Coe Willingham, together they combined for 23 of Ramla's 24 points in the 4th. Ramla had a scare when Perkins 3 cut it to 67-69 but following a timeout Ramla inbounded straight to Wright who was fouled and sank both free throws and Ramla held on.
"We struggled with their zone, our shots weren't falling, we never got into a flow on offense", said Orna Ostfeld. "We couldn't get points up on the board, we were stuck. There's not much you can do when a player of Wright's caliber steps up like that, we couldn't stop her. We put Jia on her, we tried everyone on her. We'll have to go to Ramla now and get a win", she said.
For Ramat Hasharon:
Jia Perkins 17 pts
Maurita Reid 17 pts
Nicky Anosike 11 pts
Alysha Clark 11 pts
Yael Aharonov 7 pts
Jennifer Fleischer 2 pts
Amber Holt 2 pts
For Elizur Ramla:
Tanisha Wright 33 pts
Amber Harris 16 pts
Alana Beard 8 pts
Le'Coe Willingham 7 pts
Michal Epstein 6 pts
Katia Levitsky 2 pts
Latest stories
|
|
|
Print
|
|
|
|
|