Israel fails to reach quarterfinals despite Mekel’s best efforts, while Israeli coach Ginzburg hails his winning Czech team
LILLE, France (AP) — Italy rolled past Israel and into the quarterfinals of the European Championship on Sunday, with a 82-52 win. Alessandro Gentile led all scorers with 27 points and Marco Belinelli added 14 as Italy dominated an overmatched Israeli team, which got 20 points from Gal Mekel.
Israel previously lost to France Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Jan Vesely and Tomas Satoransky had double-doubles to lead the Czech Republic past Croatia 80-59, and into the quarterfinals for the first time.
The Czechs, coached by Israeli Ronen Ginzburg, will next play Serbia, which beat Finland 94-81 for its sixth victory in as many games.
The team from the Czech Republic took command early and never relented, leading by as many as 30 against a Croatia team that had been considered favorite.
“The heart of the players, the commitment was the difference,” Ginzburg said.
Croatia played without energy despite a number of NBA players in the team and never looked like it could trouble the Czechs.
Defeated by Serbia, Finland made four of five 3-point attempts to take an early lead and Serbia did not pull away until the third quarter. The Serbs made six straight 3-point attempts at the end of third and the start of fourth and then went on a 12-0 run to decide the game.
Finland coach Henrik Dettmann said his team played well for 30 minutes but then fell short.
As reported by The Times of Israel