The guard played his first minutes of the season in the victory over HaEmek
Yam Madar returns as Hapoel wins again in Israeli League
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Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv extended its flawless start to the Israeli League season with a 76–68 home win over high-flying Hapoel HaEmek in Round 8, remaining the only team with a perfect record in the league. The showdown between two of the league’s hottest teams drew 4,032 fans, who saw the Reds move to 7–0 while HaEmek suffered just its second loss after a six-game winning streak.
Yam Madar played 22 minutes in his first action of the season and led Hapoel with 14 points. Collin Malcolm added 13, Antonio Blakeney 12 and Tomer Ginat tallied 8 points and 7 rebounds. For HaEmek, Kyler Edwards paced all scorers with 17 points and Kadin Shedrick added 11 points in the losing effort.
The game opened nervously, with HaEmek striking first and jumping to a 1-5 lead before Dimitris Itoudis’s side answered with a 20-6 run to close the first quarter ahead by 10. The highlight of the period came when Madar checked in for the first time since his injury, greeted by huge applause before drilling a three-pointer and dishing an early assist. The hosts still took a 37–31 lead into halftime, but HaEmek had made it clear it would not go away.
That pattern continued after the break. Each time Hapoel pushed the gap back into double figures in the third, the visitors clawed it down again, trimming the deficit to 55-48 heading into the final 10 minutes. Early in the fourth, the Reds surged to their biggest lead at 69–55, but HaEmek produced a 0-9 run to cut the margin to just 5 and set up a tense finish.
In the end, Itoudis’s stars delivered. Blakeney and Ish Wainright combined for 5 crucial points to restore a double-digit cushion and close out the game, sealing an important win just days before Hapoel’s next EuroLeague clash with Virtus Bologna.