Israel fell to Slovenia 106-96 as Luka Doncic out-dueled Deni Avdija in a classic Eurobasket battle as the blue-and-white finished Group D in 4th place and will face the first place team in Group C in the Round of 16 knockout clash against either Greece or Italy on Sunday. Slovenia jumped out in front early on as Doncic was able to do as he pleased, however, Avdija kept Israel hanging around but it was not enough on this night.

Doncic came to within just one assist of a triple-double as he scored 37 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 9 helpers, Aleksej Nikolic scored 16 points while Alen Omic recorded a 11 point and 10 rebound double-double for Slovenia. Avdija scored 34 points and added 9 rebounds, Roman Sorkin scored 14 points and grabbed 11 boards while Yam Madar scored 11 points in the loss.

“I don’t think we were physically at our best and we were soft on defense,” Israel Head Coach Ariel Beit Halachmi said. “We have to keep going. Other than a few minutes we weren’t able to really do any damage to Doncic and he had a great game. We wanted to get the ball out of his hands but there was not much to do. These championships are short and very intense.”

Deni Avdija spoke about the game from his point of view, “We could’ve been more focused and aggressive but all in all we did a decent job and we came back at the end but it wasn’t enough. I don’t think we should have tried to trap Luka but we should have played one-on-one. I will do what I can to help the national team win whether it’s against Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or anyone else. We will go into the Round of 16 without any pressure and we will do the best we can.”

Khadeen Carrington also talked about the defeat, “We played against Luka who is a top 5 player in the league and you have to be focused for the entire time I feel like we had slippages throughout the game and you can’t do that in basketball. Every time we step on the court we come to win whether it’s Greece, Slovenia or France after a tough loss like that, but we will be ready to play.”

Deni Avdija took control of the Israeli offense early on with points a plenty in the paint, Luka Doncic answered for Slovenia, Roman Sorkin and Yam Madar also found points for the blue-and-white but Aleksej Nikolic and Alen Omic countered to give Slovenia a 26-22 lead after ten minutes of play. Madar fed Avdija for a gorgeous basket to get the second quarter underway, Rok Radovic and Klemen Prepelic both went from deep, Tomer Ginat scored a pair of baskets and Avdija continued to find points as well, but Doncic kept filling the bucket while Gregor Horvat and Edo Muric also scored to bump up the advantage to 56-43 at halftime.

Avdija came out on fire from from deep and added a dunk to get the third quarter rolling, Guy Palatin drained a pair of triples, Doncic and Horvat scored at the other end as Sorkin and Madar tried to cut into the lead but more points from Radovic kept Slovenia in front 79-65 after thirty minutes of action. Khadeen Carrington started to hit his shots, Radovic and Doncic responded to keep the lead in double digits, Madar and Carrington scored, Omic came back with key buckets in the paint while Doncic nailed another one form deep to wrap up the victory.