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History in the making
Orli Klinger
,04/16/2006 |
"Always the bridesmaid" – that was the title for my season preview story on Maccabi Ramat Hen. "Ramat Hen has been to the playoff finals, was a free throw away from the Cup finals, and is a regular among the top 4 teams. The next step needs to end in a sea of Champaign" – I wrote back then. They just might do exactly that.
On Monday Ramat Hen will open the best-of-5 finals series at home, in front of what's supposed to be a packed house. The club is treating the finals seriously, and aside of the youth department who's supposed to come in droves, they sent two women to local super markets dressed in the team's tiger suit to give out flyers and tickets for the game.
The local fans have no shortage of reasons to come in, and believe they're going to be a part of a historic first Championship for Ramat Hen. In 1995 the club was relegated to Division III, and the journey back ended in 2000\2001 as they came back to DI. Since then they've finished each season in the top four, were tabbed as Ramat Hasharon & Ramla's little sister, but couldn't win a title.
This year the little sister could go all the way, and on paper they're the favorites. Amber Hall & Deanna Jackson are the best rebounding duo in the land, Monika Veselovski is one of the most dangerous shooters, Natasha Brackett is an excellent scorer who dished six assists per game in the semis, Shiri Sharon also had a great series and season, and they have a solid bench. But like Veselovski said, it doesn't really matter. "If somebody was a favorite it was Ramat Hasharon, so it doesn't mean anything", said the Yugoslavian. "Maybe on paper we are the favorites but of course you need to give everything, your heart and your body, to win the game. Just like they did against Ramat Hasharon".
Credit where credit is due
After their great series against Haifa/Motzkin, Ramat Hen watched Hapoel's games 4 & 5 from the stands, and waited to see who they'll meet in the playoff finals. The outcome wasn't a surprise to everyone, and they all gave respect where respect was due. "First of all yes, I was surprised", Shiki Falah addressed Hapoel's incredible upset. "They deserve credit for what they've done. They beat Ramat Hasharon three times and they deserve all the complements". How about basketball-wise? "They went with the zone and believed in it through out the series", Falah added. "When you use the zone you really have to do it for long stretches. Also I think the hierarchy on their team is so clear, whether it's Dominique or Ayana or Rada or the others, they know exactly where they need to go and when. You can also tell that they love the game and enjoy being together and that they really want to win".
Shiri Sharon was less surprised. "No… it's wasn't a huge surprise, it was a close series through out", she said. Her Capitan agrees to elaborate. "No I'm not surprised. I know Bird [Ayana Walker], I played with Bird in some really tough games and we won the Championship together so I know what Bird possesses as a player and as a veteran", said Amber Hall. "Dominique Canty is an amazing player, she's been amazing. Rada, when she is on she's on, she's a diehard player so you can't be surprised when three amazing players and a great cast come and give their all. I mean with all the big names and all the great talent that Ramat Hasharon has, if you don’t have that heart and if you don’t have that sheer desire to just… nothing's handed to you. Like yesterday we played the junior national team, we started out really sloppy and they were coming at us! Nothing's handed to you no matter how good you are or whatever, you have to go and get it done. That's what Hapoel did and I'm proud of them".
Hall is indeed proud of her good friend, Walker, and Monika Veselovski was also full of complement and said she went to celebrate with Vidovic after the win. "I'm genuinely happy for them that they pulled it off cause that was very difficult to do cause you know they're missing an important key down low but they made up for it with heart and just determination", Hall summed up.
Best basketball of the season
We all know and some of us have yet to recover from Hapoel's road to the finals, but let's remember how Ramat Hen got here. They finished the season in 3rd place after a great 2nd round thanks to Deanna Jackson's arrival, and met Hapoel Haifa Motzkin in the semi final series without home court advantage. Ramat Hen swept the series, scored 90.0 points per game, had a team assist to turnover ratio of nearly 2.0, and showed great mental toughness with two dramatic road wins. They displayed the best basketball we've seen from them, and possibly from anyone, all season long. "It's important to me to maintain that shape we were in. Physical shape, shooting percentage and in game decision making", said coach Falah. "I think it's very important mentally to let them understand that the games vs . Hapoel, and I don’t know how many there'll be, will be close. We're playing a good team who's coming in with a lot of positive energy and an unbelievable momentum – just unbelievable momentum. That will be something we'll have to understand mentally, cause basketball wise besides preparing for certain things, we're not gonna make big changes".
But it's been two weeks since Ramat Hen's game 3 against Motzkin. "It's tough to practice when you don't know who you're playing and when there's no tension towards the upcoming game", Falah agreed. "Coming off such a tense, tight and tough series there has to be some sort of mental letdown. I hope it was a positive one. I'm sure we're a little rusty. We'll try to get rid of all the rust by Monday, and if not then in the first few minutes of the game".
His Capitan seemed a little less worried. "What rest? We practiced like crazy", Hall said laughing. "We're just focused, regardless of what the situation is. We just need to know that either team we have to play was gonna be a great challenge, in different ways, but a great challenge nonetheless. We've been practicing hard and we're veterans and we're professionals and we know what we have to do. We gotta stay ready to play, regardless if it's one week, three weeks, two days.. you know?"
In each of the three season meetings between the teams, Ramat Hen had a different power forward. Hapoel won once and Ramat Hen won twice. Statistically there's not much we can learn from those games, except for the bottom line. All three games were decided by six points or less. "Hapoel Tel Aviv in all their games, even against the big teams, no game was an easy one", said Falah. "They beat us at Ausishkin and they beat Raanana at Ausishkin, and even in the games they lost to the top teams it was close. We don't expect anything different".
My player and I
We asked Ramat Hen's players a little about the keys in their personal match ups with Hapoel's heroes. We started with Hall, who cheered for Ayana Walker from the stands and knows her very well from their season in Ramla. "Birdy? Haha. Aggressiveness", said Hall. "We're definitely gonna stay aggressive on the whole team, they're very focused and they know how to play with each other very well and you know we're watching the film and I've been observing them. We played them a few times. I know personally what Bird's strengths are"
Monika Veselovski was also in the stands to support her national team teammate, Rada Vidovic, who stepped up big with 20.4 points per game in the semis. Her huge overtime forcing three in game 5 was a lot like what Veselovski hit in game 1 of her series vs. Motzkin, but no, they didn't swap tips. "That's basketball. She did her job, she's good", said Veselovski. "I'll give my best, play defense. It's team work on defense and offense, but for sure, I'll need to give 100% to stop Rada, and not just Rada but everybody on Hapoel's team".
With the quietest back court in the league, it was a little tougher. Taly Noy has been on fire with 58.8% from downtown, 3.4 threes made per game. What do you do? We asked Shiri Sharon. "You play defense. I trust my defense", she said. This is going to be a battle between the league's most significant Israeli point guards, and that's fun to see in the finals. "Very cool. Congratulations to Taly on a great season. It's not easy leading a team but it's a great pleasure".
We asked Natasha Brackett about Dominique Canty, Hapoel's leader and leading scorer. "She's a very great player. We're gonna try our best to stop her", said the 23 year old guard. "I may guard her, we'll see, it'll probably a combined effort, we'll probably take turns".
Bottom line
Ramat Hen is a more talented team, and everyone probably agree on that. Talent didn't help Anda who can either buy tickets to watch the finals or just head towards the beach, but Ramat Hen also has good chemistry. So, despite the sympathy for Hapoel and their upset, Ramat Hen is the favorite and needs to win this series. So is there pressure? "No, you can't put pressure on a team after they made such great strides to get here in the first place, that's just going backwards", said Hall. "We've had nothing but encouragement from them, there's no need to discipline or be negative to a team that's giving their all and that's all we're doing. They back us 100% with positivity and I'm really glad about how the management is handling things".
"I think that in the series against Motzkin we didn't worry about whether we're the favorites or underdogs, we just worried about what we needed to do", said Falah. "If you ask me then I have no problem with people calling us favorites and adding a little pressure casue I think the players could use some. It makes them better, they're used to it and they've been here before so I hope it'll give us an advantage".
At least from us, you got it.
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Photos by: Motti Klinger |
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