By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
An inexperienced Israeli team went head-to-head with the mighty Russians and got the better of them in a close game which ended 76-73 for Group A in Montpellier.
Israel, who had quite an underwhelming preparation period with only one win in eight games, started off trying to keep up with their opponents, trailing closely behind 18-21 by the end of the first quarter. But by the end of an excellent third they had actually taken a one-point lead (50-49/ 21-10), and then there was no turning back, in the end beating the Russians by 3 in a dramatic fashion.
Team captain Omri Casspi had a superb game dropping 21 points and collecting 9 rebounds (plus 3 assists), Lior Eliyahu added another 16 (with 4 assists), Gal Mekel – who missed a crucial free throw 4 seconds before the end – got 13 (with 3 rebounds and 3 assists) and Raviv Limonad topped it off with another 12 (1 rebounds, 3 assists) for Edelshtein’s team.
“Typical first game of the tournament,” Casspi said after the game. “In the first half we were pretty anxious and excited. we didn’t make our regular adjustments defensively. In the third quarter, we were like a bullet coming out of the fire. We made adjustments at half time. We got stops. We got easy baskets and played our game.”
The Russians – without some of their biggest players such as Timofey Mozgov, Aleksey Shved and Sasha Kaun – ultimately couldn’t muster enough grit to hold off the Israelis. Andrey Vorontsevich led the way for Pashutin’s team, completing a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds (5 assists), followed by Dmitry Khvostov who also got 15 (4 rebounds, 4 assists), Andrey Zubkov with 12, plus Vitaly Fridzon and Sergey Monya who put in some quality minutes with 9 and 7 points respectively.
“Israel grew in confidence and moved faster,” coach Pashutin stated. “Our goal was to stop their transition. Defensively we gave up a lot of points to Casspi who shot 15 free throws.” Ahead of the game with Poland, he added, “The key is the same – to not give up 65 points defensively. Without defense in the EuroBasket it is very difficult to win, or accomplish the goal of getting to the Olympics.”