In only six years of existence, Bnei Hasharon has grown into a crucial piece of the Israeli basketball scene. The club was born out of a merger of two successful clubs from neighboring towns, Ra'anana and Bnei Herzliya. Ra'anana became a local force in the late 1990s and even played in the 2001 SuproLeague. Herzliya had its best years earlier in the '90s, winning the 1995 Israeli Cup under head coach Effi Birenboim and reaching the quarterfinal round of the 1996 Saporta Cup. The 2002 merger bore immediate results. With Birenboim again on the sidelines, the club reached the pan-European stage of the FIBA Champions Cup, finished sixth in the Israeli League and made the Israeli Cup semifinals. Even though Birenboim left that summer, Bnei Hasharon continued to be a force, placing third in the league the following season and reaching the cup final in 2005. Birenboim returned in 2006 and built a strong team around Meir Tapiro, Cookie Belcher and Ousmane Cisse. Lee Nailon provided the scoring punch that season as the team finished the regular season in third place and also advance to the cup final, stunning mighty Maccabi Tel Aviv in the semis. Last year the club retained the core group and came back stronger than ever. Bnei Hasharon bested Maccabi three times during the regular season - a first in Israeli basketball history - as it finished the regular season again in third place. Then Bnei Hasharon battled its rival to the wire in the final four semifinals only to lose a thriller when Erez Katz's buzzer-beater bounced out. Even though the club failed to win its first trophy, Bnei Hasharon has proven that it fears no one. Now it sets its sights on a bigger stage as it readies for its debut foray into the new Eurocup. Katz, a ULEB Cup winner with Hapoel Jerusalem in 2004, stays as one of the main references in the same along with center Ousmane Cisse and do-it-all guard Meir Tapiro, one of the few players to register a triple-double in the competition. Hasharon has improved its roster all around to be competitive in its ULEB Cup debut. As such, the team kept guard Cookie Belcher, as well as landing scoring machine Richard Roby, who makes his professional debut in Hasharon. Forwards Haminn Quaintance and Shawn James add rebounding skills and athleticism to the mix. Bnei Hasharon faces a tough group featuring Aris TT Bank and Turk Telekom, so the team has an unique challenge to prove its value in the Eurocup scene.