The Israel Men’s National Basketball Team suffered an 88–76 loss to Montenegro today (Sunday) in its final preparation game ahead of the 2025 EuroBasket. The blue-and-white trailed for the entire 40 minutes and despite several attempts to close the gap they were unable to take the lead. Yam Madar made his first appearance and scored 12 points in 18 minutes.

On the other side, it was Nikola Vučević who led the way with 27 points in just over 28 minutes. Israel struggled from beyond the arc, shooting just 6-for-28 (21%), while Montenegro was far more efficient, hitting 10 triples at a 39% clip.

Israel got off to a poor start and couldn’t stop the Chicago Bulls big man from the get go as he helped Montenegro to a 9–3 lead. Tomer Ginat and Nimrod Levi cut into the advantage, but the hosts continued their solid shooting from deep and led 25–17 at the end of the first quarter. Eitan Burg opened the second quarter with points, but each time Israel closed the gap, Montenegro responded as the lead grew to 49–37 for the hosts at halftime.

Israel came out of halftime with more energy and with Deni Avdija leading the way, managed to cut the score down to 52–47. Montenegro answered with a 7–2 run, but Avdija once again stepped up – narrowing the deficit to just 58–53. However, as was the case all game, Montenegro quickly responded with an 8–0 run to lead 68–56 after thirty minutes of action.

The hosts opened the fourth quarter by bumping up their lead to 74-56 with their biggest lead of the game, 74–56 and while Israel managed a quick 6–0 run to cut the lead to 74–62 with 7:30 left, Montenegro held firm the rest of the way to secure the win.

Roman Sorkin scored 16 points, Tomer Ginat added 13 points while Deni Avdija & Yam Madar scored 12 points each in the loss.

National team coach Ariel Beit Halachmi reflected on the clash, “Our last game before the Eurobasket and we started poorly. We basically chased them for the next 35 minutes. We gave minutes to a lot of players and now we will be returning to Israel where we will have a few more practices before we go to the championship. As for positives, Yam Madar’s return as overall he looked good and felt good. We still have a few things to fix, but the direction is a positive one.”