The Israel National Team eased by Romania 112-61 in an exhibition game leading up to the World Cup qualifiers and Eurobasket 2022. Seven blue-and-white players finished in double digits while the team as a whole grabbed 41 rebounds, handed out 36 assists and also picked up 14 steals in an all-around solid game. Deni Avdija did not play in the game after being out of action for a number of days with an illness but is slated to tale part in the second game against Romania on Thursday at 20:30 at the Drive In.

Israel came out strong to begin the game as Tamir Blatt ran the offense to perfection dishing out a quartet of assists to Jake Cohen and Roman Sorkin while Patrick Richard and Emanuel Cate kept Romania close but the blue-and-white grabbed a 20-14 lead after ten minutes of play.

Guy Pnini, Yam Madar, Gal Mekel and Yovel Zoosman all dialed up long distance in the second quarter to begin to pull away as Rolland Torok and Lucas Tohatan tried to keep the game close, but Sorkin hit a short jumper at the buzzer to give Israel a 45-32 at halftime.

Rafi Menco, Tomer Ginat, Cohen got busy to start the third quarter while Zoosman, Madar and Sorkin also filled the basket to go up 78-47 after thirty minutes of play. The final frame saw Gaby Chachashvili and Iftach Ziv both get minutes as Israel cruised to the 51-point victory against an overmatched Romanian squad.

Yam Madar led the way with 17 points, Nimrod Levi added 13 points, Yovel Zoosman and Roman Sorkin each checked in with a dozen points a piece, Tomer Ginat finished with a terrific game thats aw him score 11 points grab 6 rebounds, pick up 6 assists as well as 4 steals while Jake Cohen and Nimrod Levi both had 10 points in the win. Emanuel Cate with 14 points and Patrick Richard with 13 points paced Romania in the loss.

“It’s a big advantage and we saw that in the game against Georgia,” Head Coach Guy Goodes said about having his forwards very active in passing the ball and recording assists. “The Romanians inside game was a bit of a challenge for us and we did a good job with that aspect. It’s great that everyone passes the ball from hand to hand and when the ball moves around everyone is content.”

The game’s MVP Yam Madar spoke about the team’s game play, “We were able to translate what we have been doing in practice to the game and we are taking it one game at a time as we work on our game which we have to do even better than we have up until now.”

Rafi Menco also reflected on the contest, “There were things that we wanted to work on and I believe that we were able to accomplish that in this game. Our focus was on improving and we want to keep working on doing just that.”

“We have to focus on ourselves, improve and keep getting better,” Tamir Blatt explained. “We have a group of guys here that really like to play with each other and we want to go out to battle and leave it all on the court.”