The Under-18 Israel National Team suffered its first loss at the European Championship, after succumbing to Italy 89-80. Just like in the first game where he scored 31 points, Ben Saraf excelled once again while Yaron Goldman, Omer Mayer and Aviv Henkin’s performances were not enough this time around to notch the win. Tomorrow (Monday) at 16:00 Israel will face Serbia to end the group stage.

Israel got off to a great start led by Saraf and Henkin as they took a 25-20 lead after ten minutes of play with Goldman drilling home a late triple. The Italians came back to take a31-30 lead early on in the second quarter but a Saraf dunk gave the advantage back to the blue-and-white, however, Italy closed the gap and the squads went into halftime with Head Coach Sharon Avrahami’s team clinging to a 47-45 lead.

The Italians kept pushing Israel as the third period began to grab a 58-50 lead but a pair of 3-pointers by Henkin gave Israel life but went into the final frame down 64-60. Mayer, Goldman and Saraf helped Israel knot the game up at 74-74 but an 11-0 run by Italy to end the game gave them the victory.

Ben Saraf scored 19 points, Yaron Goldman added 17 points as Aviv Henkin and Omer Mayer chipped in with 12 points a piece.