Doron Free Throws Sink Brave Portugal

Israel struggled but won against a never-say-die Portugal in EuroBasket Women Qualification Round Group A on Wednesday.

Shay Doron had 22 points and the game-winning free-throws with five seconds remaining as Israel prevailed, 62-60.

Portugal trailed for much of the early going but fought back to knot the game at 27-27 with 12 seconds to go in the first half after a lay-up by Sara Filipe.

Israel took a 30-27 advantage to half-time following a three-point play by Doron.

A Filipe three-ball tied the contest at 30-30 early in the second half and then a Carla Freitas shot from the arc gave the hosts a 33-30 advantage.

With the game level at 35-35, Israel went on a 10-0 run and seemed to take command.

Liron Cohen had the last eight points in that spurt, including a couple of three-pointers.

But Portugal refused to go away, even when facing a nine-point deficit with 3:30 to play.

A lay-up by Filipe and jumper by Maria Correia closed the gap to 59-58.

After Doron split a pair of free-throws, Sofia Da Silva drew a foul and sank two from the charity stripe to tie the game at 60-60 with 19 seconds to play.

Israel called timeout, and when play started again, Carla Nascimento fouled Doron with five seconds to play in the contest.

This time, the veteran guard sank both attempts.

After a Portugal timeout, they got the ball to Nascimento but she was off target with her attempt as Israel survived to improve to 2-2.

With the defeat, the Portuguese fell to 0-4.

Quoteds Portugal vs. Israel

Shay Doron, Israel:
"It wasn't an easy game. In the second half we got tired. We needed this win and it doesn´t matter if it was by 1 or 100 points. Winning is the important thing."

Eli Rabi, Israel coach:
"After our bad game against Hungary it was important for us to win today. We had hoped it'd be easier but from our experience there is not a team in Europe these days that you can easily beat. I´m happy that we got our main goal but we still need to improve our game."

Ricardo Vasconcelos, Portugal coach:
"This game was a very good answer from my team about their real value. We had a bad start in this qualification round but this was the game where we showed what we can do. While I believe that we could still have won this game, I am proud of my players."

Carla Freitas, Portugal:
"We are very proud of the game we played [tonight]. I think we played tougher and that we improved a lot since our first game. We played as a team, our defense was stronger. We are getting better. The game was realy close and we managed to get a lot of rebounds and we made second shots. We will work even harder and we hope we can beat them in Israel."