1st quarter, 02:54: Israel - Poland 16:11

At this hour, the Israeli national team is hosting Poland in Riga as part of the first round of the second stage of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers. Ariel Beit-Halahmy's squad opens the new group knowing that every game could be decisive in the fight for a ticket to the World Cup, as the blue-and-whites look to open the window with an important victory against one of the strongest rivals in the group. Israel qualified for the second stage with a record of two wins and four losses, carried over from the first stage. The blue-and-whites defeated Cyprus twice, but lost twice to Germany and twice to Croatia. Just before the opening of the current window, the team held a preparation game, in which they lost 101:90 to Georgia.

Now, the team knows that a victory against Poland could bring them back strongly into the fight for one of the three tickets to the next stage, with another away game against Latvia already awaiting them on Sunday. On the other hand, Poland arrives with a perfect record from the first stage and is considered one of the strongest teams in the group. The Poles enjoy an experienced roster, with Mateusz Ponitka and Jordan Loyd leading the team, and they will try to take another significant step towards the World Cup. Both teams know each other well, having met quite a few times in recent years, both in official games and in major tournaments. The record between the teams is particularly close, and in recent years it has provided quite a few dramatic games.

For Israel, this is an opportunity to achieve a prestigious victory against a direct rival and gain a lot of belief ahead of the rest of the campaign, while Poland will try to maintain the perfect record and get one step closer to an appearance at the World Cup.

First quarter: 14:23 for Poland.

Israel's starting five: Yam Madar, Kadine Carrington, Guy Palatin, Netanel Artzi, Roman Sorkin.

Poland's starting five: Aleksander Balcerowski, Michal Sokolowski, Igor Milicic, Jordan Loyd, Mateusz Ponitka.

The Poles started stormily and went up to a quick 2:11 after 3 and a half minutes with points from Ponitka and Balcerowski, Adam Ariel narrowed the gap with a three-pointer and brought the Israelis back into the game. Milicic was accurate from distance and increased the Polish gap, which caused Beit-Halahmy to take a timeout. Loyd scored, Sorkin responded quickly with 4 consecutive points, Ariel added and reduced it to 5, but Olejniczak and Pluta immediately started a blitz and set the score at 11:23. Blatt hit a three-pointer and ended the quarter for Israel with a 9-point deficit.