The Israel Under-20 National Team will play four exhibition games in Latvia ahead of this summer’s European Championship which takes place in Ljubljana, Slovenia in mid-July.
Beginning on Friday, a tournament will take place in Riga in order to prepare the players for the Eurobasket and was organized by the the Israel Basketball Association in cooperation with the Latvian Basketball Association.
Schedule:
• June 26 – Georgia
• June 28 – Ukraine
• June 29 – Ukraine
• July 1 – Estonia
Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
Squad for the Tournament:
Yaron Goldman, Miron Katz, Yonatan Keller, Oren Sahar, Aviv Henkin, Rani Belaga, Alon Danieli, Matan Streit, Ariel Sela, Tamir Gold, Gabi Artmenko and Jules Karam.
Head Coach Oren Aharoni said, “I feel good as it’s a privilege and an honor to coach this team, really any national team. The players are amazing and unlike the previous time when most of them were leading players, this year the experience is a bit different. The vast majority did not receive significant playing time with their clubs and we can feel that. But as a coaching staff and as players, we always want to do our very best.
Oren Aharoni – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
“We are heading to an exhibition tournament ahead of the European Championship and we will take things one game at a time. There are several leaders here. Rani Belaga is one of them, as is Ariel Sela, players who participated in the FIBA U19 World Cup. They will need to take a step forward and assume greater responsibility.”
Israel will compete in the Division A European Championship, which will be held this summer in Ljubljana between July 11-19. Israel was drawn into Group D alongside Czech Republic, Romania and the host nation Slovenia. Israel’s opening game will take place on July 11 against Romania.
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