Israel played their hearts out but too many mistakes down the stretch and into the overtime period handed Finland a 97-95 win at the Drive In Arena. The blue-and-white will now head to Koper where they will face Slovenia on Monday in the final game of World Cup qualifying as interim head coach will look to notch his first win leading the national team.

Bar Timor played tremendous basketball throughout the contest for Israel who had already been eliminated from the competition’s final stages in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines, while 18-year old up and coming star Noam Yaacov made an impressive debut for the blue-and-white. But it wasn’t enough as Lassi Tuovi’s veteran laden squad, who are heading to the world championships this coming summer came back with solid play from sniper Sasu Salin, Alex Murphy and Mikael Jantunen to take the win.

Nimrod Levi, Tomer Ginat and Itay Segev all got involved early and often for Israel as Timor orchestrated the offense to a 28-13 lead after the first quarter, but Salin, Murphy and Ilari Seppala began cutting down the lead to head into halftime with Zilberstein’s team in front 46-35. Ginat, Yaacov, Timor and Roi Huber scored for Israel in the third period but Salin, Murphy and Jantunen who took advantage of a late unsportsmanlike foul on Netanel Artzi knotted the game up at 83-83 at the end of regulation time.

Israel looked to have gotten overtime off to a great start with points from Yaacov, Timor and Ginat but pair of 3-pointers to go along with untimely calls against Israel allowed Jantunen and Edon Maxhuni to wrap up the 2-point win.

Timor led all scorers with 27 points and 6 assists, Ginat added 16 points and Yaacov scored 12 points in the loss. Salin scored 18 points, Murphy put in 17 points while Seppala and Jantunen each scored 15 points in the win.

“The loss is very disappointing because the guys since Monday have put everything on the floor, each practice and the entire game,” Israel interim coach Nadav Zilberstein said. “I’m more than proud how we played and we got back to play like the Israel team with more spirit and battle. We executed well for there quarters. We have to give credit to Finland, they are a tough team and we knew they would be there in the fourth quarter.”

“Credit for Israel and they came in with great spirit after being eliminated and they were proud to play for their country,” Lassi Tuovi. “It took us time to get into the game. We were behind by 16 points and we believed and we saw some Finnish sprit to make the comeback.”

Israel top player in the game, Bar Timor looked back at his team’s performance as well as his own play, “We had some small mistakes and some miscommunication at the end. Tough calls that influence the game and they came back into the game after a good start for us. I felt lefty godly this week and I had some talks with Nadav and he told me just he responsible and be myself, during the game I felt pretty comfortable.”

Noam Yaacov spoke about his debut and his daring style of play with no look passes and confidence on the court, “Of course thus was a huge honor and I’m happy that I was able to play in my first game with the national team. But it’s really too bad that we didn’t come out of here with a win. I’m content that I can play my game and it’s great that they allow me to do so. I enjoy it very much but I also have a lot to improve upon but this was a positive start for me.”

Ilari Seppala spoke about the comeback victory, “It was a good win, terrible beginning of the game and things that we talked about before the game we didn’t do. Easy layups the whole first half, so it was easy to change something in the second half which is what we did.”

Israel got off to a very quick start with easy points by Tomer Ginat, Bar Timor and Nimrod Levi as the blue-and-white ran the transition offense to perfection to grab a 14-8 lead midway through the first quarter. Itay Segev got busy inside with a pair of graceful buckets, Timor added a 3-point play and then thread the needle to Idan Zalmanson for a pair, Elias Valtonen and Ilana Seppala responded from deep for Finland while Alex Murphy also found points but Nadav Zilberstein’s squad took a 28-13 lead after ten minutes of play.

Alex Murphy and Timor traded baskets to begin the second quarter, Remu Raitanen, Seppala and Sasu Salin went from deep to cut the lead but Segev inside and Timor outside responded to keep Israel ahead 37-27 with five minutes remaining in the first half. Roi Huber scored his first deuce, Noam Yaacov fed Ginat a magnificent ball, Salin dialled up long distance and Yaacov went from downtown to give Israel a 46-35.

Murphy looked to dent the lead with a pair of baskets to get the fourth quarter underway, Zalmanson put in a deuce, Salin did the same at the other end from the inside and the outside, Timor went from way downtown, as did Salin to stay within 3-points, 75-72 with five minutes left in regulation time. Raitanen with a 3-pointer knotted the game up, Yaacov went in for a 3-point play, Jantunen put in a layup, Blayzer notched a pair of free throws, Timor went from deep, but free throws from Jantunen and then an unsportsmanlike foul to Netanel Artzi sent the game into overtime all knotted up at 83-83.

Jantunen with points for Finland, Yaacov for Israel started off the extra session, Timor went from downtown, Ginat put in a layup, Seppala came back with a pair of triples, Maxhuni hit a trio of free throws after a foul by Blayzer and a technical to coach Zilberstein as Timor hit a 3-pointer but it was too little too late as Lassi Tuovi’s team wrapped up the victory.