The Israel Under-19 National Team arrived back in the Holy Lane on Monday after having finished in 7th place overall at the FIBA U19 World Championship. Omer Mayer, who starred for Sharon Avrahami will be one of three players along with Rany Belaga and Oren Sahar who will now head to the Under-20 team and the European Championship in Heraklion, Greece.

Avrahami who will also coach the Under-20 team spoke about the opportunity to play in the top competition for the Under-19 age group for the nation’s first time.

“It was an amazing championship and a tremendous experience,” Avrahami began. “This was something unique, to be amongst the best players in the world and the best teams in the world. You had to be there to understand, it was great fun. The game against Cameroon proved what the character of this team is. We were 15-16 points behind in the third quarter and then we came back little by little and turned the game around in money time.”

“Fortunately, there were quite a few good moments and it was really something else to be at such a tournament with the best of the best. This was an exciting moment for all of the players and we felt the tremendous support from the country, especially at this time, so I hope that we did some good for a lot of people.”

The coach also spoke about Omer Meyer who will be taking his talents to Purdue for the upcoming season, “There was a lot of pressure on him, the first game was excellent, the second game was not so good but he led us overall and in the game against Cameroon he was exceptional. This was clearly another good championship for him”

“There are two or three days to recover and then we will join the Under-20 National Team training sessions to prepare for the European Championship and I am very much looking forward to it. It will be a challenging championship and I’ll have three players from the Under-19 team continuing with us. I have coached most of the players in the Under-20’s beforehand and I am looking forward to an exciting championship.”

Another player who had a superb showing at the European Championship was Oren Sahar and is someone that Avrahami has kept a lookout on, “He made great progress and made the right decision to play a lot of minutes in the Second division league, he trained with Maccabi for part of the time, he looked good in practice and had a great championship. I’m a happy that he will continue with us for the Under-20 as well.”

The Israel U18 Women’s National Team came up short against Montenegro 67-48 to finish with an 0-3 record and in last place of Group A at the European Championship in La Palma. Shira HaElion’s squad began the game on the right foot to take a quick 10-2 lead, but from that moment on, Montenegro, who finished the group stage with a 1-2 record, took control of the game and grabbed the 19-point victory. Maya Zilbershlag scored 14 points while Mai Baico added 10 points in the loss.

In their Round of 16 matchup on Wednesday, the blue-and-white will meet the first place team from Group B in 3-0 Belgium in the knockout game.