The Netherlands back on course after beating Israel

Womens basketball in France - The Netherlands started the game more aggressively and led (6-2) with Tessel van Dongen doing the early damage with 4 points after three minutes of play.

Van Dongen continued her festival by hitting a rainbow three-pointer when left open. At that time the Netherlands completely dominated the hosts.

Israel’s early problems continued when Shira Ben Barak took a slight knock that dazed her. She had to leave the court for a short moment.

The Netherlands continued to play aggressively and stretched their lead (15-4) after a couple of free-throws by Rianne Hofstraat with just under six minute played.

The pace of the game changed and Israel started to run more with the ball and hit back on the fast break with 5 points from Ben Barak.

However the Netherlands used their height advantage well and kept on getting easy baskets in the paint. Zara Butter scored her 6th point on the buzzer for the Netherlands to win the first period (24-11).

Israel changed their approach in the second period and started to shoot more from the outside and reduced their deficit to 10 points with (17-27) with three minutes played as Avigiel Cohen stepped up.

The Netherlands weathered the storm and got back into their stride.

Butter and Cohen then had a private contest in which both players scored 5 points.

Yet the Netherlands remained in control and held on their advantage (35-25) with three minutes left to play in the second quarter.

The Netherlands continued to alternate their inside play with perimeter shooting which resulted in Romee van der Vlies firing in from the land of many.

Cohen scored her 14th point of the quarter to end the scoring but it was the Netherlands that went into the interval leading (41-29).

No points were scored at the beginning of the third period. But Israel were looking for a way to draw Butter into committing her 4th file, which she did after 2 ½ minutes of play on Hadar Gutin.

The Netherlands eventually opened the scoring with Marlou de Kleijn scoring back to back baskets which was quickly followed by a trey from Hofstadter (48-29).

The Israeli head coach Edny Dagan called for a time-out and asked Cohen to start scoring. She responded with back to back scores. Yet Israel allowed de Kleijn to go coast to coast.

The game became physical and with Cohen starting to cause problems Ria Boring called for a time-out despite leading (53-38).

Her answer was to bring Butter back on who quickly responded with a baseline jumper.

The Netherlands went into the final period leading (57-43).

Israel ran their hearts out during the first five minutes of the final quarter but with Cohen, the only offensive solution, the Netherlands managed to control the pace of the game. They led (65-53) with four minutes left in the game.

The last three minutes were typical youth international basketball with bodies flying all over the place as players attempted to make space when there was none.

The Dutch players were not intimated by the crowd and held on to win (71-60) with three players in double digits.

Butter led the attack with 18 points and 15 rebounds, Cohen hit 35 points for Israel.

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