Last update - 00:00 12/08/2007
Israel tops Ukraine after 81-73 after late rally
By Haaretz Sports Staff
Israel needed a fourth-quarter rally to beat Ukraine 81-73 at Yad Eliahu last night in a Eurobasket '07 additional qualifying round Group C game.
Lior Eliyahu paced Israel with 20 points and 7 rebounds. Yotam Halperin followed with 18 points and 6 rebounds and Yaniv Green came good with 16 points and 7 rebounds.
Oleksandr Kolchenko led all scorers with 30 points for Ukraine.
Playing without coach Vitaliy Lebedintsev, who quit in the wake of Ukraine's 70-45 humbling by Belgium midweek, the visitors looked like they could pull off an upset in the third quarter before Dror Hajaj scored twice from the free throw line to send Israel into the final period with a 58-57 lead.
A field goal and a triple from Yotam Halperin sparked a 14-0 run for Israel, and Zvi Sherf's team held on for an 81-73 win.
Belgium scored an 80-66 win in Belgium behind 22 points from forward Axel Hervelle, and the meeting between the teams at Yad Eliahu could be decisive in determing which side goes through to the round-robin between the three group winners for the final place at the European Championships in Spain next month.
"We had some outstanding periods in the game and some not so good ones," said Israel coach Zvi Sherf. "Against the Belgians it will be a different story. They have aggressive players on defense and they have Axel Hervelle around whom the team is built. We will have to sacrifice players against him."