Israel's World Cup Dream Ends in Riga Collapse
For a quarter and a half in Riga, Israel looked like a team answering its critics. By the final buzzer, it looked like a team out of ideas, out of energy, and now out of the World Cup.
Ariel Beit-Halahmy’s side fell 85-70 to Latvia after blowing a double-digit lead, another bruising night at the end of a campaign that has lurched from disappointment to disappointment. The defeat confirms what had already begun to feel inevitable: Israel will not be at the upcoming Mondobasket.
From control to chaos
The start offered no hint of the unraveling to come. Beit-Halahmy went with Yair Kravits, Yam Madar, Netanel Artzi, Lior Carreira, and Roman Sorkin, and they set the tone early. Carreira opened with a three, Madar sliced through for a fast-break layup, and Israel led 5-2, playing with purpose and pace.
Latvia answered through Kristers Zoriks, who flipped the score to 11-7, but Artzi’s three and Sorkin’s first points steadied the visitors. Kravits kept attacking, Eitan Borg added two sharp plays off the bench, and Israel closed the first quarter 22-21 ahead, deservedly so.
The second frame was even better. The second unit stayed on, and immediately delivered. Back-to-back threes from Adam Palatin and Borg stretched the gap to 28-24. Madar drove hard to the rim, Carreira floated in another basket, and the lead kept nudging upwards.
Under the boards, Sorkin and Itay Segev raised the physicality, wrestling control of the paint. The advantage ballooned to double digits. At one point, Israel led by 11 and looked on the verge of breaking Latvia’s resistance.
Then the lights went out.
Possessions grew static. The ball stopped moving. Latvia didn’t have to be spectacular; it just had to be solid. Zoriks, the most reliable local threat in the first half, chipped away. Within minutes, the entire cushion vanished. A promising 10-point lead dissolved into a 41-41 tie at halftime. Madar had 7, Borg 6, but the mood had shifted. Israel had let Latvia back in, and the hosts knew it.
Strautins takes over
The third quarter turned the night from worrying to disastrous.
Israel opened it well enough. Artzi drilled a three, then added a tough basket to restore a 46-41 edge. The pattern from the first half repeated: a good Israeli surge, a quick Latvian response. Only this time, one man took full command.
Arturs Strautins caught fire and never cooled. Every time Israel missed, Strautins punished them. He scored from deep, attacked close to the rim, and ran the floor like a man playing the game of his life. By the end of the night, he had a career-best 29 points and the game in his pocket.
On the other side, Israel’s offense stalled again. Madar tried to drag his team along, probing, pulling up, looking for any crack in the Latvian defense. Sorkin chipped in, but the misses piled up. The rhythm disappeared. The confidence with it.
Rihards Lomazs found his touch, joining Strautins in turning the screw. Latvia built a six-point lead at 58-52. Artzi, one of the few bright spots, hit again to keep the gap at six and move into double figures personally, but it only delayed the inevitable. Strautins capped a dominant quarter with another three, and the hosts strode into the final period up 67-58. Israel looked drained, mentally as much as physically.
No response, no rebound, no World Cup
If the third quarter belonged to Strautins, the fourth belonged to Latvian control. They came out to finish the job and did it with ruthless simplicity.
The lead jumped to 14 in a blur of rebounds and second-chance points. Israel’s body language sagged. Sorkin blew an easy dunk. Madar, who ended with 15 points, suddenly found no routes to the basket. Every Latvian miss felt like a pass to themselves, as they dominated the glass and turned extra possessions into a 78-62 margin.
The closing minutes were little more than extended garbage time. Latvia cruised. Israel chased shadows.
Artzi closed with 11 points, Sorkin and Segev added 9 each, Borg finished with 8, Carreira with 7. Beyond Madar and Artzi, it was hard to find anyone who truly imposed himself on the game. Khadeen Carrington’s night summed up the offensive malaise: 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting, a non-factor when Israel needed a scorer.
For Latvia, the stat line told a far brighter story. Strautins’ 29 points towered over everything, backed by 18 from Lomazs and 16 from Zoriks. They didn’t need to be spectacular for 40 minutes. They just needed to wait for Israel to fall apart. Eventually, it did.
A campaign without answers
Put this defeat next to the heavy loss to Poland and the broader struggles of the campaign, and the picture is stark. Leads don’t hold. Offense dries up under pressure. Defensive intensity comes in bursts, not waves. When games tilt, Israel has no reliable way to wrestle them back.
The scoreboard in Riga confirmed the immediate damage: 85-70, Latvia. The deeper wound is longer term. No World Cup, and a national team walking away from this window with more questions than certainties about where it goes next.
