Israel defeated Germany 73-69 in Tel Aviv on Sunday night in the first of their final two warmup games prior to next week’s EuroBasket. After a first half that saw the visitors take a slim 40-38 lease into halftime, the blue-and-white played lockdown defense in the second half as five players scored in double digits to record the exhibition game victory.

While Israel started off looking a little shaky with some missed baskets early on, Alyssa Baron proved the steady hand, shooting two 3-pointers in the first three minutes, showing that she will be one of the outside threats whom teams will need to stop in next week’s tournament. Early points to Luisa Christine Geiselsöder (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks) and Leonie Fiebich helped give Germany a 14-11 lead after 6 and a half minutes.

With Eden Rotberg’s entry into the game came another experienced shooter for the home team – another one to draw the attention of the defense – allowing both her, Yarden Garzon and Gili Eisner (3 points and 2 assists) to score 3 points out of the time out and Israel took a 20-18 lead into the quarter time break.

The teams continued to trade baskets in the second quarter, before Germany started to pull away at the end of the first half, leading by 8 points with a little under three minutes left. However, Israel clawed back to reduce the margin to 2 points at halftime, with the Germans going into the break ahead 40-38.

Neither team could pull away from the other in the third quarter, Alex Cohen providing the firepower for the home team with 8 points (including two 3-pointers), helping to take a 54-53 lead into the final quarter of regulation. But the biggest concern for Israel came towards the end of the third quarter, with Jennie Simms (8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal) seeming to pull her calf muscle, which kept her out of the rest of the game.

If Israel looked a little shaky at the start of the game, by the fourth quarter they were looking a lot more comfortable together on the court, extending their lead to 68-62 by the final timeout of the game with three and a half minutes remaining. While Germany fought back, Israel’s solid defense down the stretch, with free throws from Daniel Raber (10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals) with half a minute left in the game, securing the win for the hosts.

Alex Cohen (13 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist), Eden Rotberg (12 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists), Yarden Garzon (12 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists) and Alyssa Baron (11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals) led the scoring for Israel, while Leonie Fiebich (21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals), Marie Gülich (13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks) and Emily Bessoir (11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal) were in double figures for Germany.

“First of all, it’s a different atmosphere to playing overseas, on our home court and with the crowd,” Raber said after the game. “We feel the atmosphere and the enormity of it and I think that we did well in our first test at home. I hope that we can translate it to the EuroBasket.”

“We didn’t have a deep rotation, because we wanted to get the win and give ourselves confidence after the loss in Greece,” Israel coach Sharon Druker said after the game. “Overall, I think the team are playing well and playing the right way. The difference was that in the second half they were a lot more aggressive, causing 15 turnovers in the second half compared to only 3 in the first half, which is what I asked for in the locker room at halftime.”

“A heart attack regarding Jennie’s leg, I’ve already experienced similar incidents too much over the last couple of weeks,” Israel coach Druker said after the game, referring to Lior Garzon’s foot injury and Jennifer Fleischer’s broker leg. However, Druker noted that the injury isn’t serious and that she has not joined the team’s injury list.

Israel plays Germany again on Monday evening at the Drive In in Tel Aviv at 20:30 IDT / 13:30 EDT, with free entry for the fans who want to see the team’s last warmup game before next week’s opening EuroBasket game against Belgium.