Israel Put Away Determined Portugal

Katia Levitsky had a strong game with 14 points and 8 rebounds for Israel

Israel defeated Portugal 58-47 on Saturday for their fourth victory in the EuroBasket Women Qualification Round.

Power forward/center Katia Levitsky led the Israelis with 14 points and eight rebounds in the Group A game.

Israel only edged Portugal in the first encounter, 62-60, back on 27 June and the visiting side played with a real sense of purpose in the second encounter.

The side from the Iberian Peninsula trailed 39-35 with less than 12 minute remaining.

Israel scored the last nine points of the quarter for a 48-35 advantage and stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way.

Portugal's 21-year-old center Sofia Da Silva had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Portuguese fell in all eight of their Qualification Round games.

Italy and Latvia claimed the two places for the Final Round from Group A.

Quotes Israel vs. Portugal

Israel head coach Eli Rabi
"I am very happy we won today. I was very afraid from this game after the great effort in Hungary. It wasn't great basketball today. We opened a gap at the end of the third quarter and won the game. In 7 out of 8 games we were close. If I had to put my finger on one thing that stopped us from reaching 2013 EuroBasket is the rebounds. I am sad that we failed but I am proud in the players and their effort."

Israel guard Liron Cohen
"The target was to qualify for EuroBasket Women. We didn't make it but we should take it in proportions. We showed nice basketball, we had some exciting high level games. We didn't make it but our face is to the future and we will try to reach the target next time."

Portugal head coach Ricardo Vasconcelos
"It was a hard campaign, hard eight games and no win, hard to keep working hard everyday. The players need more confidence and need to win. Today it was good at the half, we knew we
were going to play the pick and roll dangerously so in the second half we made some mistakes on defense and they won the game with 3 pointers in the third.

Portugal player Michelle Brandao
"Like coach said, it was tough to lose all the games but I think we improved game by game. we learned, next year we'll be better. Israel got a lot of offensive rebounds and second chance points, we turned the ball over many times and missed some shots we usually make. Israel was aggressive and played well."