Israel opens Euro qualifying with a win, then a loss

Israel fell to Slovenia 88-79 on Sunday night to split its opening pair of Eurobasket 2025 qualifiers and head home with a 1-1 record, with the next window of games slated for November – a home-and-home series with Ukraine.

The blue-and-white, which was playing without Roman Sorkin, who had injured his knee in the first qualifier at Portugal, started strong and grabbed an early double-digit 20-8 lead in the first quarter on the strength of Yam Madar and Iftach Ziv.

However, the hosts came storming back as Leon Sterger and Ziga Demic along with Gregor Hrovat got Slovenia rolling, followed by Klemen Prepelic, Jaka Blazic and Mike Tobey all getting into the game to pull away and leave the visitors well behind as Aleksander Sekulic’s squad took the win.

Madar scored 19 points, Tomer Ginat added 17 points and 10 rebounds as Ziv scored nine points in the loss. Prepelic scored 21 points, Tobey added 20 points and 12 rebounds while Hrovat scored 16 points in the win.

“Slovenia played very well and deserved the win,” Israel head coach Ariel Beit Halachmi said. “At the end of the day, our offense was wide open and we kept missing shots. I don’t remember a game like that and we could have been in the lead at the end of the first half. We didn’t do the job defensively and we were late on closeouts and their threes that were coming. They hurt us all game on the offensive rebounds. The best team won this game.”

“We can be proud of the reaction of the players after being down,” Slovenia head coach Aleksander Sekulic said. “We fought back by the end of the first half and then we continued along in the second half where we left off in the first. Even when we made mistakes we knew to stay together and notch the win.”

Ziv spoke about the game from Israel’s perspective.

“We knew that we were facing a good and experienced team. We came here to fight and came to take the win and we are disappointed with the result, but it is what it is. We wore the Israel national team jersey with pride and we did as best as we could. Am Yisrael Chai.”

Hrovat also reflected on the game for Slovenia.

“We knew that it was going to be tough as Israel has a good team and a lot of individual quality. We started slow but we turned it around in the second half and we deserved to win.”

Israel defeats Portugal

In Israel’s first game of the International window, the blue-and-white defeated Portugal 72-70.

Beit Halachmi’s squad had all kinds of trouble in Lisbon after Sorkin went down with a knee injury as Madar and Ginat along with Bar Timor were able to overcome fine performances by Travante Williams and Ruben Prey to hang on for the victory.

Madar scored 16 points and dished out five assists, Ginat added 17 points and Timor scored nine points in the win. Williams scored 18 points, Diogo Brito chipped in with 12 points and Prey scored 10 points for Portugal in defeat.

“The main thing is that we won,” Beit Halachmi said. “We knew that the game wouldn’t be easy and we’ve seen them before. They are a team that makes it very difficult with their style and toughness. We had a lot of turnovers, but I’ll take the last 50 seconds of the game when we brought our character and left here with a victory, that’s the most important thing.”

Israel’s Rafi Menco added: “It’s not easy to play here in this arena and you can say that the game was a complete mess. This was an important victory and a good start, but we must improve. We came into the game knowing that it depended on us and there was not too much time to practice. In any case, we will have to improve day by day because there is not much time to practice together.”

“We proved that we can play with any team and that we can make it to the Eurobasket,” Portugal coach Mario Gomes said. “We are at the level and we proved it. We could have won if we scored one more three-pointer. In order to win at this level we have to play our best and we didn’t.”

Williams also spoke about the game for Portugal.

“It was a great game, nice fans and put on a good show but 2-of-21 from three-point line and that tells the story of the game. We have some great players on this team and we can do better than that. We have to be more focused on the moment and we have a tough team so we have to have more discipline and be accountable for that, In those moments we have to be more focused.”