Israel fell to Italy 66-50 as the Under-20 team came in sluggish to the afternoon affair after alate night win over Turkey to open the European Championships. Head coach Elad Hasin’s squad came out strong, but the Italians began to take control of the game as they took the 16-point victory. Next up for the blue-and-white who are now 1-1 in the competition, is a date with Belgium on Monday night (9pm Israel time) to end the group stage as the knockout rounds begin on Wednesday with every team advancing.

Danny Wolf got off to a hot start once again for Israel while Ido Harel hit his shots from deep and Noam Yaacov also played an instrumental part in the blue-and-white offense, but Italy led by Alessandro Ferrari and Octavio Maretto took a slim 35-32 lead into halftime.

The second half started with Italy putting the pedal to the metal as Nicolo Virginio and Alfredo Boglio picked up points while Israel kept shooting blanks from beyond the arc going only 5/25 from deep while Yaacov and Wolf’s efforts were not enough as Israel’s record dropped to 1-1.