Israel tops group, advances despite narrow loss to Estonia

Israel advanced to the semifinals of the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament despite coming up short against Estonia 67-65 in the third and final group game late Tuesday night.

By finishing with a 2-1 record in round-robin play, the Israelis finished atop their group and will now head to Gliwice along with Estonia, which finished in second place ahead of the Czech Republic and North Macedonia.

As it looks to advance to the 2024 Paris Olympic qualification tournament next summer, the blue-and-white was only to find out its opponent in the Final Four late Wednesday when Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and Hungary finished their group play.

Leading the way to Estonia's victory

On Tuesday, Estonia jumped out to a double-digit lead early on in the first quarter as Artur Konontsuk and Miki Jurkatamm led the way to help the hosts to a 20-12 lead after 10 minutes.

Yair Kravits, Bar Timor, Gaby Chachashvili and Yam Madar all got busy for Israel as the second quarter got under way. However, Kaspar Treier answered, as did Mihkel Kirves and Kristian Kullamae, for Estonia. But Roman Sorkin pulled Ariel Beit Halachmi’s squad to within just a pair of points, as Israel trailed 36-35 at the break.

Sorkin on the inside, Kravits and Oz Blayzer from the outside got very busy in the third quarter to give Israel a 48-38 lead midway through the period, but Konontsuk, Hugo Toom and Sander Raiseste responded to retake the lead for the host, 52-50 after 30 minutes of action.

Madar and Sorkin scored to begin the final frame, but Treier, Konontsuk and Joonas Rissmaa came back with points. Timor nailed a key three-pointer late, however it wasn’t enough to take the victory as the blue-and-white fell narrowly to Estonia but still advanced to the semifinals in Poland on Friday.

Sorkin led Israel with 18 points, Timor added 13 points and Kravits scored nine points, while Treier (16 points) and Konontsuk (12 points) paced Estonia.

“It was a very aggressive and physical game,” Beit Halachmi said. “We weren’t able to really play our game, but we showed character after a rough start. We didn’t rebound well in this game, which was something that we did fine in the others, but at the end of the day we did what we needed to. We didn’t want to head to overtime and we played the last possession well and now we will take a couple days to rest, which is what the players need right now so we can be ready for the next stage.”

Kravits also looked back at the game.

“I’m happy that we were able to reach our goal. We didn’t begin the game well and we got back into it and finished in first place in the group. We’ll head to Poland on Wednesday and it doesn’t matter who our opponent is as we will do everything that we can to get to the final. We are a national team with a lot of faith and we will continue to believe.”Acting captain Bar Timor also reflected on the contest and the group stage.

“We were able to reach one of our goals which was to finish in first place in what was a very tough and aggressive game. Perhaps we were a bit tired at the end and we could have won, but that’s part of the deal. But we lost within the point differential we needed to and ended at the top of the group. We tried to win as I drilled down the clock on the last shot after asking Ariel what to do on the possession, but we ended in first place in any case.”