Israel pummeled a hapless Ireland 87-57 to pick up their first win in Eurobasket 2025 qualifying. The blue-and-white set the tone early as veteran sharpshooter Alyssa Baron and captain Eden Rotberg scored at will to bump the lead up quickly as Eden Zippel, Daniel Raber and then Dor Saar put the game out of reach to cruise to the win. Next up for head coach Sharon Drucker’s squad is a date with Latvia on Sunday as they will look to move to 2-0 in Group E play.

Eden Rotberg hit her shots to begin the game for Israel while Alyssa Baron and Daniel Raber also scored for the blue-and-white as Sarah Hickey tried to keep Ireland close but Sharon Drucker’s team grabbed a 26-16 lead after ten minutes of play. Eden Zippel and Daniel Karsh scored for Israel to start off the second quarter, Hickey and Bridget Herlihy tried to keep the Irish relevant but more points from Baron and Rotberg sent Israel into halftime ahead 52-31.

Zippel and Rotberg kept finding the bottom of the basket while Daniel Karasgh also scored in the third quarter to go up 69-40 as Dor Saar knocked down a quartet of triples in the final frame to wrap up the 30-point victory.

Zippel led the way with 17 points, Rotberg added 16 points, Baron scored 15 points while Saar checked in with 12 points in the win.

“We quickly adapted to our advantages and disadvantages,” head coach Sharon Drucker said. “We scored a lot of points from their turnovers, but we also turnover the ball a little too much and needed to make some tactical changes. I was afraid that we would be too busy dwelling with all of the external issues but the players were focused and I saw from the first moment that they were there and put in a great performance. I have been in sports for many years and I have never seen anything like this in my life. There isn’t a game where you don’t acknowledge the other team, shake hands, congratulate each other. They took an extreme step and they received their punishment for that today. Sports need to be a bridge, they took a side without even thinking about what they were doing.”

The Israel captain Eden Rotberg looked back at the win, “This was very important win and it was much more than just a win but something personal as each one of us did. I’m very happy that we beat them and brought pride to our country which is very important. It was very unsportsmanlike that they didn’t shake our hands and politics need to be taken out of sports. Unfortunately that was not the case today or in the recent past with the Irish. It was very difficult for me to see them not looking at us during the anthems and showing disrespect. This should be the minimum amount of basic human dignity. But ultimately wee are happy that we defeated them.”

Dor Saar also spoke about the victory, “It’s always great to represent our country especially during these times, but most importantly is that we won and I hope that we can continue on from here. I don’t want to go into the fact that they didn’t shake our hands but it just gave us more drive and motivation. We sang the national anthem at the top of our lungs with pride and we have to show the entire world that we are the State of Israel and that we will be here for many, many more years.”