The Israel Under-20 Men’s National Team opened the European Championship on Saturday with a 79-74 win over Spain. Head Coach Sharon Avrahami’s squad, which did not play a single exhibition game ahead of the championship, looked exceptional in the first half and led 50-30 at halftime. However, the Spaniards were much better in the second half and managed to narrow the gap to just a singe point late in the game, but tough defense and composure from the free throw line handed the blue-and-white the victory. On Sunday, Israel will meet Finland at 13:00 as they hope to improve to 2-0 in group play.

Shachar Doron helped Israel get off to a quick start with the team’s first 8 points, while the Spaniards got into the game with a run of their own that gave them a slim lead but Avrahami’s team’s aggressiveness allowed the blue-and-white to reach the line 13 times in the first quarter alone to take a 22-15 lead after ten minutes of play. Alon Michaeli and Yoav Vitlem went from deep to go up by 15-points as Spain managed to find points as well but Doron continued to fill the basket including a corner triple to give Israel a 50-30 advantage at halftime.

Spain came into the third quarter with a high level of intensity and forced a number of Israel turnovers while Clemson Iguodala dominated under the baskets and Lucas Langarita hit back-to-back 3-pointers including one at the buzzer to cut the Israel lead down to 64-55 after thirty minutes of action.

Iguodala and Langarita kept scoring as the latter nailed a triple to cut the score down to 73-72, however, over the final few minutes, Omer Mayer drew a key foul and scored from the line, Vitlem did an outstanding defensive job on Langarita, while Michaeli scored and Doron hit his free throws en route to the 5-point win.

Doron led the way with 25 points, Michaeli recorded a 19 point and 11 rebound double-double, while Vitlem added 9 points in the win. Langarita scored 28 points and Iguodala added 13 points in the loss.

“This was a very important and key victory for us against a team that is a basketball powerhouse,” Avrahami said following the win. “The first half was great, in the second half the Spaniards came back slowly but we survived a thriller. We will learn some lessons from this game so we will have better second halves going forward. We will expand the rotation against Finland as this will be a very critical game for us.”

The MVP Shachar Doron also spoke about the victory and also talked about not having played ay exhibition games ahead of the European Championship, “I’m glad I had a good game, but it’s only the first game. It was a team effort and we all really played well. It’s always important to start a tournament with a win, especially against a team like Spain. As for not having played any warmup games, it’s obvious that this effected us a bit in the second half, but we were able to close things out so all and all I hope we will continue like this.”

Gal Raviv may have scored 35 points but it wasn’t enough for the Israel Women’s Under-19 team, which opened up the World Championship with an 86-82 loss to Hungary. The two squads went toe-to-toe throughout the contest as Raviv led the blue-and white with 17 points alone in the third quarter. With roughly 4 minutes to go in the game, Hungary held a 77-70 advantage but Israel rattled off 4 consecutive 3-pointers by Israel to take the lead. However, from that point on Tal Natan’s squad failed to score again as they succumbed to Hungary by 4-points to open up the World Cup with a tough defeat. Next up is South Korea on Sunday at 8:45pm as Israel will look to even up their group stage record at 1-1. Raviv (7/9 from 3, 8 assists) 35 points, Maayan Cohen (7/14 from 3) 25 points, Tamar Carmi 11 points.

The Israel Women’s Under-18 National Team was relegated to Division B after falling to Turkey 66-57 in a game that will determine the 13th-16th places at the European Championship. The game was close throughout, with Shira HaElion’s squad managing to take a lead at times, but a solid fourth quarter by the Turkish side closed out the game and sent the blue-and-white down a division for next year’s competition. Maya Zilbershlag scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while Maya Elmaliach recorded her best game of the tournament with 13 points.