For the first time in their history, the Israel Under-20 Women’s Basketball Team advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championships with a 63-53 comeback win over Finland. Tal Natan’s blue-and-white headed into halftime down 33-26, but a 12-0 run led by Emma Rinat and Hila Karsh put Israel into the lead for good as they punched their ticket to the quarterfinals and will play in Division A next year as well.

Karsh led the way with a 20 point and 11 rebound double-double, Tamar Singer added 16 points and 8 assists, Dorian Dahan scored 10 points while Rinat chipped in with 7 points in with win.

“This is a historic moment,” Natan said. “So many years of work and effort made it possible to reach this moment. I have to credit the young women who came back from a deficit with real teamwork. Our defense in the second half was great and we were able to stop their bigs as we saw the game plan come to fruition. Israeli basketball has had a wonderful summer.”

Rinat also spoke about the victory, “Winning today was realizing a dream for all of us as this was the goal that we had at the start of the campaign. We are very proud of ourselves and the staff and now we are looking ahead to the quarterfinals. We proved that we can beat any team.”