The Under-20 Israel Men’s National Team fell to Italy 89-80 in quarterfinal action at the European Championship and will compete for 5th-8th place after their first loss in the tournament. The young blue-and-white went on a 12-0 run in the second quarter which helped give Sharon Avrahami’s team the lead and eventually go up by 19 points during the third quarter. However, from there the game turned around as the Italians raised their level of aggressiveness on defense and held Israel to only one field goal in the final quarter.

The blue-and-white were held to just 3/25 from deep and didn’t hit a 3-pointer in the second half, while on the other side, after only hitting 3.8 three-pointers per game in the tournament, the Italians drilled home seven of them in the second half alone on their way to the semifinals. On Saturday, Sharon Avrahami’s team will meet the loser of the Spain and Serbia quarterfinal in the ranking games.

The Italians took a quick 11-7 lead with good minutes from Elisee Assui, before Omer Mayer went from beyond the arc and Alon Michaeli scored in the paint as Israel grabbed a slim 25-24 lead after ten minutes of play. Rany Belaga sent a perfect ball to Maxim Filonenko for an alley-oop to open the second quarter as the big man did a terrific job at both ends of the floor while Mayer and Michaeli led Avrahami’s team on a 12-0 run to head into hafltyime with a 53-29 advantage.

The blue-and-white came out of the break on fire as Michaeli and Ariel Sela bumped the lead up to 19 points, but the Italians recovered and began to hit their shots from deep as Stefano Trucchetti narrowed the gap to 71-64 by the end of the third period. The Italians continued to display aggressive defense in the final frame and held Israel to just a trio of points as they moved into the lead with David Torresani did the damage to secure the victory.

Michaeli scored 21 points to go along with 8 rebounds, Mayer added 18 points and five assists but struggled from the field, while Filonenko scored 8 points without a miss, grabbed six rebounds and recorded 3 blocks in 14 minutes of play in the loss. Assui scored 22 points, Torresani added 14 points and Trucchetti scored 12 points in the win.

“It’s a tough feeling,” Avrahami began. “We were there and we controlled the game. At some point we got distracted and our confidence dropped. Our shots went in during the first half but not in the second. We didn’t score our shots from deep, the momentum turned and things just didn’t go our way, it’s a shame.”