Israel's Collapse Against Latvia: World Cup Dreams Dashed
Israel let another one slip. And this one closed the World Cup door.
In Riga, with a double‑digit lead on the board and a chance to wash away the humiliation against Poland, Ariel Beit‑Halahmy’s team simply unraveled. A 15-point loss, 85-70 to Latvia, told the story on the scoreboard. The way it happened said much more.
From control to collapse
Israel actually started like a team that had learned its lesson.
Beit‑Halahmy went with Yair Kravits, Yam Madar, Netanel Artzi, Lior Carreira, and Roman Sorkin. Carreira buried a three to open, Madar ran the floor for 5-2, and the visitors looked sharp, alert, aggressive. Latvia, led early by Kristers Zoriks, nudged ahead 11-7, but Artzi’s three and Sorkin’s first points steadied Israel. Kravits drove hard, Eitan Borg came in with energy, and the first quarter ended 22-21 to the blue-and-white. Composed. Competitive. On plan.
The second quarter pushed that feeling further. The second unit stayed on, and back-to-back threes from Raz Palatin and Borg stretched the margin to 28-24. Madar sliced into the lane, Carreira floated in another, and the lead grew. Under the rim, Sorkin and Itay Segev turned up the physicality; Israel’s advantage climbed into double figures. At 10 up, Latvia looked rattled, searching for rhythm.
Then the switch flipped.
Defensive intensity dropped a notch. Offensively, the ball stuck. Zoriks sensed it first, punishing every hesitation. Latvia wiped out the entire gap in a blur of possessions, and what had been a promising cushion vanished by halftime: 41-41. Madar led Israel with 7 points, Borg added 6, but the mood had shifted. Israel walked to the locker room knowing it had let Latvia back into a game it had under control.
Strautins takes over, Israel disappears
The third quarter belonged to one man and one team. Neither wore blue-and-white.
Arturs Strautins, who will remember this night for a long time, detonated the game. Before he took over, Israel tried to reassert itself. Artzi opened the half with a three and followed with a tough basket for 46-41. Again, the visitors seemed ready to push on. Again, they failed to land the punch.
Latvia answered, tied the game, and then Strautins started to cook. Madar and Sorkin kept Israel on the board with scattered baskets, but every time they scored, Strautins responded with more. Threes. Drives. Confidence growing with each possession. Israel’s offense, once flowing, slowed to a crawl. Miss followed miss, and suddenly Rihards Lomazs found his range as well.
The gap stretched to 58-52. Artzi, one of the few Israelis playing with real belief, hit again to stay within six and move into double figures. It didn’t change the direction of the night. Strautins closed a blistering quarter with another three, pushing Latvia out to 67-58. Israel trudged to the bench looking short of ideas, short of energy, and short of answers for the Latvian forward, who would finish with a career-best 29 points.
Garbage time and hard questions
The final quarter was brutal in its simplicity.
Latvia came out to finish the job and did it with ease. The lead ballooned to 14, then 16. Israel’s defense, already leaking, completely broke. Rebounds went one way. Second chances, third chances, all in maroon. At 78-62, the contest had turned into extended garbage time.
Israel’s execution collapsed along with its confidence. Sorkin missed an uncontested dunk. Madar, who tried to drag the team along, stopped finding ways to score. Possessions fizzled out on the perimeter. The Latvian crowd enjoyed the closing minutes; Israel just waited for the buzzer.
It ended 85-70, a scoreline that flattered neither the effort nor the stakes. Madar closed with 15 points, Artzi with 11. Sorkin and Segev added 9 each, Borg 8, Carreira 7. On the Latvian side, Strautins’ 29 towered over everything, backed by 18 from Lomazs and 16 from Zoriks.
The numbers that hurt most, though, were not on the box score. A double-digit lead squandered. A second straight defeat, this time to a modest opponent. A campaign that never really caught fire, ending not with a fight but with a fade.
Israel will not be at the upcoming World Cup. What remains is a depleted roster, a shaken locker room, and a federation staring at a harsh reality: this wasn’t just a bad night in Riga. It was the bill for an entire qualifying run that never found its identity.
