A representative from the Jordan Under-19 National Team officially notified FIBA on Sunday that the squad will not play against Israel and boycott the game handing the blue-and-white a 20-0 technical win. This will be Head Coach Sharon Avrahami’s second victory in the competition after defeating the host Switzerland 102-77 in the opener.

The Chairman of the Israel Basketball Association, Amos Frishman said, “On behalf of the Basketball Association, I regret the decision of the Jordanian team. I had hoped that the Jordanians would still come and play the game and show everyone that it is possible to do otherwise, especially during this time. I believe that sport is a bridge between peoples and cultures and not a political arena. I hope that in the future there will be no question about playing these games.”

In Israel’s first game of the tournament, the blue-and-white defeated Switzerland in Lausanne as Omer Mayer who led all scorers with 24 points, broke the contest open with a trio of triples as the matchup headed to halftime to send Avrahami’s squad on its way to the big victory.

“We played against the host team and we were a bit rusty as the game got underway,” Israel Head Coach Sharon Avrahami began. “But as the time went by we were able to get into the swoon of things. We saw a lot of players really give solid performances while Omer Mayer is our go-to guy. We need to pick up our one-on-one defense going forward while the coaching staff deserve a ton of credit for having the squad ready.”

The coach also addressed the issue of Jordan boycotting the clash between the two, “We see them in the hotel every day and we sit next to them. We don’t get involved in politics. What goes beyond that is not in our control. We want to play against any opponent and at any time. It’s important for me to point out that we have tremendous support from the country, we all feel it.”
Avrahami also said, “I want to give great credit to my two assistants and staff who made sure that the team came here in the best possible physical condition. We don’t leave the compound that we are in and there is heavy security around us. There was a very large number of Israelis here and we felt their push.”

Omar Mayer, who will be heading to play at Purdue University this fall, excelled with 24 points, “Playing at the world championship is something that we haven’t experienced yet as a team, so it was definitely important and we’re happy with the win. We know we need to improve our defense and a number of other things. It’s great that we won and this was also an important victory as we look forward to the next game.”

“I really enjoyed the first half but all I did was play basketball, I did what I needed to do to help the team win. My teammates helped me a lot and it could have been someone else. I think we can go far, but that’s not what concerns me right now as we’re taking it game by game. We’re here to bring pride to the country, to leave everything on the court and whatever happens, the result will come. We’re here to be aggressive and bring pride to the country.”

Rany Belaga also chimed in on the win, “This was a very crucial win and for a first game at the world championship we performed well, but now we have to take the experience we gained and improve on our play for the next game. It took us some time to get into the game after having a bit of a break without having the chance to play some exhibition games ahead of the competition. We know that this is a huge event and it took us time to get into the flow of the game which we did as we went into the second half.”

Next up for Israel will be the Dominican Republic on Tuesday at 21:00 as the blue-and-white will look to finish in first place in Group C which should give them a favorable Round of 16 opponent from Group D which features he United States, France, Australia and Cameroon.