The Israel National Basketball Team defeated Cyprus 94-54 in FIBA World Cup Qualifying to secure its first win after having fallen to Germany and Croatia in the previous window. The blue-and-white came out on fire against one of the group’s weaker opponents and by halftime Ariel Beit Halachmi’s squad was ahead 58-23 and for all intents and purposes sewed up the victory.

Yam Madar spurred Israel coming off of the bench with 22 points while he along with his Hapoel Tel Aviv teammates Bar Timor (4p) and Oz Blayzer (2p) have departed Cyprus for Bulgaria where they will meet up with their teammates for a Euroleague game against Paros slated for Tuesday night which was originally supposed to be played in Israel. e

Three Maccabi Tel Aviv players Roman Sorkin, Tamir Blatt and Gur Lavy met up with the national team in Cyprus following the club’s win at Monaco and will be part of the squad for Sunday’s qualifier once again in Limassol.

Other scorers for Israel included Khadeen Carrington with 11 points, Eli Dolinsky with 10 points while Joaquin Szuchman and Adam Ariel each scored 8 points in the win.

The head coach Ariel Beit Halachmi spoke about the win, “We started well, we practiced properly and the players did the job and came in focused like they should. Still, we need to look ahead to Sunday and finish the window with a second win. The game flowed well. We didn’t keep the same pace in the second half, but that’s natural. We need to stay ready and not fall asleep as for the changes in the roster for the second game, the players coming in are good players and I hope they integrate into our flow. They need to be part of the way we play and I hope we can bring them into that.”

The game MVP Yam Madar also discussed the win, “There are gaps in the level between the two teams and we did the job properly. We played seriously from the first moment and we all played well and I’m happy everyone showed that.”