National U-20 hoops team reaches Euro finals

The Israel Basketball National Team will play for the Under-20 Gold medal at the European Championships on Sunday at 9 p.m. in Heraklion, Crete after disposing of Belgium 67-46 in their semi-final matchup on Saturday.

This marks the fourth time in the past seven years that the young blue-and-white have advanced to the title game.

Head Coach Elad Hasin’s squad took the game to the Belgians from the get-go as Ron Zipper and Yuval Levin got Israel off to a quick start just as they did in the team’s quarterfinal win over Germany. Noam Yaacov also continued his fine tournament play to help take the game to 31-25 at halftime.

Danny Wolf, who recorded a 17-point and 18-rebound double-double, then took center stage in the third quarter as he scored points a-plenty to go up 54-33 after 30 minutes to help the blue-and-white cruise to the 21-point victory.

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Next up in the championship game slated for Sunday night will be the winner of the Greece and France semi-final.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Hasin said. “No one believed that we would be here competing for the gold. The story here has been without a doubt that the Israel National Team and the players deserve all of the credit for playing with incredible passion.”