Poland has qualified to the next round of EuroBasket 2015. That's the good news. The bad news is that they lost to Israel, 75-73 in really bad fashion.
It all looked very promising to Marcin Gortat and his teammates after the first quarter of the game. Gortat was taking full advantage of his size in the post and scored 8 points.
Poland led 24-22 thanks to energetic start and very efficient shooting - 11 of their 18 FG attempts made. But the next ten minutes were disastrous - 10 turnovers and only 8 scored points says all. Poland couldn't find any sort of composure or rhythm after that. Gortat himself committed five turnovers, so he wasn't helping in that regard.
Israel with their star player Omri Casspi and late game hero Gal Mekel were just better, more determined and above all, more focused. They deserved that win. The Israelis will play against France for first place in Group A in their last game before the knockout rounds.
The Polish will finish group play by playing Finland on Thursday at 9 a.m. ET.