Israel Women's Basketball Team Faces Tough Turkey in EuroBasket Qualifiers

The Israeli women's national basketball team is set to host Turkey in Latvia on Saturday at 19:40 (live on 5PLUS) as part of the EuroBasket qualifiers. This comes after a disappointing loss to Poland, where Israel performed well for three quarters before collapsing in the final period.

The team has spent the last two days in tactical preparation for the match against Turkey, considered one of Europe's strongest women's basketball nations. Turkey began the second stage of group play with a decisive 79:62 victory over Montenegro, with Elif Bayram contributing 18 points and 10 rebounds. Despite participating in the last World Championship, Turkey experienced three losses there and finished seventh in the previous EuroBasket.

Player Shir Tirosh emphasized the need to learn from the previous game, stating, "We are preparing and learning from the previous game to come better prepared for the game against Turkey. I think we need to close better on the rebound, be more in the flow of the game, and overcome the pressure against us. Overall, we did a good job against Poland and met our goals. It was a frustrating and disappointing loss, but I think we were closer than we thought, we need to know how to learn to close games."

Following the game against Turkey, the Israeli team will depart on Sunday morning for Montenegro. Their journey, via Denmark and Hungary, will take half a day. They are scheduled to play their final game of the current window against Montenegro on Tuesday.