The Israel Men’s National Basketball Team defeated Cyprus 109-69 as they recorded their second victory in EuroBasket 2025 warm-up games. Ariel Beit Halachmi’s team looked good on the attack throughout the game, but in the first half allowed the Cypriots to stay close, however after halftime the blue-and-white significantly increased their level of defensive intensity, on the way to 54-25 second half to polish off the win. Tomer Ginat led the team with 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists, Yovel Zoosman also added 15 points while Deni Avdija and Idan Zalmanson both scored 12 points as Israel will now ready to meet Greece on Sunday at 20:30 for their 4th exhibition matchup ahead of the European Championship.

Avdija and Ginat helped the blue-and-white take a small lead as Zalmanson played well off the bench along with Roi Huber who helped give Israel a 29-23 lead after ten minutes of play. The Cypriots managed to narrow the gap to only a single point, 34-33 in the second quarter but Khadeen Carrington hit a pair of 3-pointers to send Beit Halachmi’s team into halftime ahead 55-44.

Bar Timor and Zoosman increased the lead as the third quaker got underway while Avdija, Rafi Menco and Guy Palatin bumped the lead up to 83-59 after thirty minutes of action as the fourth quarter saw more of the same from the squad to run away with the 40 point win.

Head Coach Ariel Beit Halachmi spoke about the win, “We didn’t play as well was we could have in the first half especially on the defensive side. We didn’t play hard enough, we didn’t make any stops and we were very soft. In the second half, we raised our level of aggression, we looked better and from there we ran and scored some easy baskets. The most important thing is that we played a game where we were able to distribute the minutes properly and we all finished healthy, but on Sunday will be a completely different game.”

Roi Huber added, “We started the game a little but too calm and quietly but I think that as soon as we picked up the pace in the second half we were able to keep our consistency on the court and the result showed just that. I’m happy with the victory, Sunday we’ll continue our preparation and we’ll meet a tougher opponent and hope to continue our good play.”

The Israel Under-20 Women’s National Team defeated Turkey 80-78 as Gal Raviv’s last gasp layup handed the blue-and-white the dramatic win as Tal Natan’s team will face Belgium for 5th place at the European Championship. A 12-2 third quarter run by Israel turned a 7-point halftime deficit into a lead. Turkey managed to knot the game up with free throws in the final seconds, but Raviv’s winning basket set the celebrations off on Israel’s bench. Raviv scored 19 points, while three players scored 12 points a piece – Ayala Oren, who also added six assists, Mika Bitan who added 6 boards and Maayan Cohen, who drained a quartet of triples in the victory.