The Israel National Team advanced to the second round of World Cup qualifying as they trounced Estonia 96-77 at the Drive In Arena. The blue-and-white overpowered the visitors with stifling defense over the second half as Guy Goodes’s squad held the advantage in rebounds, assists and fast break points while sporting five players in double digits.

Yovel Zoosman had the hot hand early on for Israel but Estonia came storming back in the second quarter with 3-pointers a plenty to take a short lived lead, however, inside scoring by Roman Sorkin gave the blue-and-white a 4-point, 48-44 advantage after twenty minutes.

The third quarter saw captain Gal Mekel begin to slice and dice the Estonian defense to help the hosts to 24-13 frame including a 10-0 run to end the period ahead 72-57. Tomer Ginat, Nimrod Levi, Rafi Menco and Sorkin polished off the visitors over the course of the final ten minutes to outpace and overwhelm the visitors to notch the convincing win.

Goodes’s team will now take the month off and reconvene at the beginning of August when they will begin to prepare for both the first window of the second round of World Cup qualifying and then head off to Prague for the 2022 Eurobasket.

During the first window of the second round of games where the records from the first round of qualifying carry-over, Israel will head to Finland where they will tip-off against Cleveland Cavaliers star Lauri Markkanen and then host Sweden. Israel will also play Slovenia without Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic as those games will take place in November and February while the forward will be plying his trade in the NBA. Rounding out the group of six are Germany and Estonia whom Israel just faced and will not play again as the top three teams will advance to the 2023 World Cup which will be held in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia.

“I want to congratulate the team for a great game,” Goodes began. “We knew that this was a game that our backs were against the wall. But these are the games you live for, knockout games. We had a good approach and started the game strong. We came into the third quarter focussing on our defense after having allowed Estonia to score five 3-pointers in the second quarter. We are happy for the crowd that we were here for them and that we were able to advance to the playoff round.”

“Congrats to Israel as they deserved to win,” Estonia coach Jukka Toijala said. “Congrats also to the both of us as we qualified for the next round. We saw very different windows during this round of qualifying and today we didn’t have physical power to fight. We lost the rebounds and fast breaks and the 10-0 run at the end of the third quarter by Israel really was the end of the game for us.”

Yovel Zoosman, who spurred Israel to a quick start early on reflected on the game, “We played good basketball and we gave a good effort. We played happy basketball, shared the ball and we enjoyed the game along with doing the small things. We played tougher (than in Poland) and when you score 96 points it helps a lot. The crowd was amazing and it’s a totally different story when you play at home than on the road.”

Ginat led the way with 17 points, Sorkin added 16 points, Zoosman scored 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds while Mekel scored 8 points, pulled down 7 boards and dished out 6 assists in the win. Maik-Kalev Kotsar paced Estonia with 13 points while Janari Joesaar and Kristjan Kitsing each had 12 points a piece in the loss.

Idan Zalmanson opened the scoring on the inside while Yovel Zoosman added a 3-pointer from the outside to get Israel on the board, Tomer Giant made a nifty move in the paint after a taking a deft pass from Zoosman and then followed it up with a dunk to take a 9-4 lead midway through the first quarter. Kristian Kullamae went from deep for Estonia, captain Gal Mekel and Roman Sorkin found easy points in key, Rauno Nurger came back with a jumper for the visitors, but Zoosman drilled his second triple and Mekel fed a cutting Bar Timor on the baseline for Guy Goodes’s squad.

Zoosman sent a high arcing shot from the corner for yet another 3-pointer, Sander Raieste and Maik-Kalev Kotsar scored to keep Jukka Toijala’s squad close, Nimrod Levi went from downtown, Mekel cut to the basket for a floater and added one off the glass as time expired for a 29-22 Israel lead after ten thrilling minutes of play.

Kullamae and Kristjan Kitsing each dialled up long distance to begin the second quarter while John Dibartolomeo did the same at the other end of the court but Kitsing nailed another one from deep as did Janari Joesaar to give Estonia a 37-36 lead with 5:50 left in the first half. Sorkin dunked out of a timeout, Blatt went from beyond the arc, Joesaar and Kaspar Treier scored at the other end but Sorkin scored at the halftime buzzer to give the blue-and-white a 48-44 advantage.

Levi and Menco got the third quarter rolling with a triple a piece from deep, Kotsar came back with a trio of baskets and Blatt went from deep to keep Israel ahead 60-52 midway through the third quarter. Kullamae and Ginat traded buckets, Mekel fed Ginat with a behind the back pass for the 3-pointer to give the finish off a 10-0 run and give the hosts a 72-57 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Tomer Ginat put in an easy pair of baskets to begin the fourth quarter, Sorkin scored a couple inside as well with the second a reverse dunk, Menco drilled home a corner 3-ball while Yam Madar joined the party with a floater to wrap up a tidy 19-point win.