Will the reserve team be European champions for the third time in a row? It could happen early next week, but there is still a long way to go. Meanwhile, the players’ next hurdle in blue and white is Turkey and the teams are meeting at this time in the Eurobasket quarterfinals.
As mentioned, the reserve team has won the last two tournaments in 2018 and 2019. Since then, naturally, the squad has changed and after the European Championships have not been held in the last two years due to the Corona virus, Oren Aharoni and his players are fantasizing about continuing the streak. In the meantime they are also doing their thing.
The team finished the first stage of EuroBasket led by House 2 with victories over Greece and Italy, and a loss to Portugal. Israel opened the knockout stage yesterday with a 60:77 victory over Slovenia and they did it mainly thanks to Gilad Levy (15 points and 8 rebounds) and Noam Dovrat (13 points).
Turkey finished the first round in second place of House 4 after host Montenegro, and in the quarterfinals Israeli rival defeated Ukraine 56:72. So will the journey in blue and white continue with a semi-final ticket?
First quarter: 10:15 to Turkey
Israel rose in the top five with: Amit Aharoni, Noam Dovrat, Gilad Levy, Harel Rinsky and Eliad Tal.
Turkey went up in the top five with: Building Soil, Chekichi readers, David Motaf, Aga Ozchlik and Acker-san.
Israel opened the game excellently and already after two seconds Noam Dovrat scored two points, Eliad Tal Kaber then slipped and raised Israel to 0: 5, the Turks did not score in the first two and a half minutes, until David Motaf gave them first points. Israel stopped a bit and Turkey took advantage of it for a three by Aga Ozchelik who ran a 0: 6 run on the way to 5: 6.
After another three by Motaf, the senior Turkish player, who put the Turkish run at 0:13, Oren Aharoni had no choice but to take a timeout. But even then, nothing went to the blue-and-white gang, which continued to simply miss from every corner and the Turks already climbed to a double-digit advantage, Avner Dror reduced to 7:15, Rinsky buried three and a quarter ended with less damage than Israel should have ended, 10:15 to the Turks.
Second quarter: Equality 34:34
The team went up better in the second quarter, much thanks to Gilad Levy who got into things. Hapoel Jerusalem’s chin was a huge dunk and added a point from the line after squeezing an offense, then he also scored another layup and after one point from Ron Zipper’s line, the Israeli run went up to 0:11 and the advantage returned to the guys in blue and white.
Levy continued to do what he wanted under the basket and with another move by And Van, completed a 3:16 summer, Amit Aharoni added and increased the advantage to 18:23. A wonderful three by Harel Rinsky increased the Israeli difference to 10 points. Rinsky continued to fire with another big three, but the Reds responded with a quick basket on the other side that narrowed the gap to eight points. The Turks’ 0: 6 run narrowed the Israeli advantage to only three points. A three-point move in favor of the Reds sealed the second quarter result and set Equality 34:34.
Third quarter: 48:60 for the Israeli team
Noam speaks a wonderful opening of the second half with a beautiful layup. Harel Rinsky continued to be Oren Aharoni’s hot man with another three, his fourth in the game, which gave the Israeli team a two-point advantage. A Turkish basket responded with a great layup by Gilad Levy that increased the white advantage to three points.
Rinsky continued to snipe from everywhere and with another three, his fifth of the game, increased the Whites’ lead to seven points. A wonderful three by Noam Dovrat jumped the advantage of the Israeli team to nine points. Dovrat continued to lead the team with a great layup that increased the Israeli difference to 12 points. At the end of three quarters in Montenegro the scoreboard showed – 48:60 for the Israeli team.
Fourth quarter:
Amit Aharoni opened the last quarter in Montenegro with a wonderful layup that bounced the Israeli difference to 14 points, but the Turks responded quickly with an accurate three on the other side that shrank to 11 points the advantage of the Whites.