Israel defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 98-91 as veteran Alyssa Baron paced the blue-and-white to the 2027 Eurobasket qualifier win in Sarajevo. The hosts jumped out to an early lead as Dragana Domuzin led the way, but Alyssa Baron kept the visitors within striking range but down 53-44 at halftime.

aron continued to fill the basket in the third quarter while Abby Myers, Daniel Raber and Dorian Dahan Sujic kept scoring while also limiting Bosnia to take the lead late late in the fourth quarter thanks to a Gili Eisner triple and go on to notch the win. Next up for Israel is Luxembourg on Saturday night in Riga followed by Ireland also in Latvia to finish off the November window of three qualifiers.

Baron scored 27 points, Meyers added 21 points, Sujic scored 17 points and Raber recorded a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds for Israel in the victory while Domuzin paced Bosnia with 25 points, Andela Sipka put in 19 points and Kamiah Smalls scored 18 points in the loss.

“We didn’t have much time to practice, just two days in fact so we came out a bit flat,” Israel Head Coach Shira HaElion began. “We didn’t defend well in the first quarter and I saw who were going to able to play well going into the second half and I went with them in what was a terrific showing with so much effort by them to get the win.We closed out well in the second half as we didn’t defend well against the 3-pointer in the first half. I have to take my hat off to them and now we can really move ahead in qualifying, but we can never go into any game as the favorites.”

Abby Meyers looked back at the victory, “We got then win and I am happy about that. I came here to help the team and the priority is to win. Every single person and organization, you can feel their support and love and that is why we were able to come back form 10 down to win.

“I fouled four times in one quarter which was terrible, I am glad I was subbed out and that was tough, but everyone stepped up. Every person made a difference, Gili made two bigs 3’s and Alyssa scoring 27 points on one leg with a hamstring issue was incredible. We stayed with the ebbs and flows and it wasn’t pretty basketball but at the end of the day you have to grind out a win.”