In 1947 Yugoslavia made their EuroBasket debut and finished in the 13th place.

Since then, step by step, they made it to greatness.

Today, 60 years later, under the name Serbia, they find themselves in a similar situation.

Israel beat Serbia 87-83 in one of the most intense games in EuroBasket and qualified to

		Yaniv Green was a rock for Israel, scoring 26 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

the next round in Madrid.

Both teams fought to survive and while at first it seemed Serbia had the upper hand, Israel showed great character and took over the game in the second half.

"It's all my fault and I take the full responsibility. I picked the players so I can't blame them," said the Serbia coach, Zoran Slavnic, to the press after the game.

Those players he picked were very tired from last night's overtime battle against Greece, and couldn't match up the intensity of the Israeli team.

Serbia took a small lead early in the game, and after Milan Gurovic connected two from the line his team led 23-16 at the end of the first quarter.

Milos Teodosic scored four points in a row at the end of the second quarter to give Serbia their biggest lead of the night, 33-45, but Yotam Halperin who kept his team in the game throughout the first half, answered at the other end with a three-pointer that sent the teams to rest with a nine point difference between them.

Israel, who missed the injured center Erez Markovic, watched Yaniv Green make two quick fouls in the first half when he played only 7:40 minutes.

That allowed Serbia to shoot 63% from two point range in the first half.

"At half time we spoke only about defense," revealed the winning coach, Zvika Sherf, and it showed on court.

When the second half gong sounded Israel stormed out with bigger intensity.

Their defense was much more aggressive and slowly the difference got smaller and smaller.

Green was in full control on the boards and matched up Darko Milicic, as Israel took the lead 61-60 in the last seconds of the third quarter after Green connected two from the line.

Milicic gave the lead back to Serbia only to see Guy Pnini combine seven points in a row to give his team a 68-62 lead.

Serbia came back to minus one but never took the lead back.

Israel, who shot 88% from the line tonight, connected on seven of their last eight free throws in the last 21 seconds to secure the win, and send Serbia 60 years back.

Serbia

Coach Zoran Slavnic: "It's all my fault and I take the full responsibility. I picked the players so I can't blame them. Israel played very tough. I said before the championship that if we finish ninth or lower I'll go live in Iceland. I might just have to do that now."

Marko Jaric: "We didn't play hard enough, but most of all we under-estimated Israel. We shouldn't have done that, but still we did, and that's one of the main reasons we lost this game. The big game last night made us very tired."

Israel

Coach Zvika Sherf: "Big congratulations to my players. Today we gave a great game and also played good basketball. At half time we spoke only about defense. We can't score 90 points often. In the second half, we made a great job defensively and it gave us confidence offensively. Yaniv Green had a great game. Guy Pnini opened because he needed to stop Milan Gurovic. I'm very happy for the Israeli people and everybody who supports us. In the first game (against Greece) we were pushing for 40 minutes and maybe it was hurting us against the Russian, so I let some players rest yesterday in the second half. Serbia played a long game yesterday and maybe they were tired. We're now going to the next round and we'll try to do our best."

Yaniv Green: "Tough match for us today. We had some problems believing we can win the game because of what happened to us last night. In the second half, we came with a big spirit and intensity. Everybody gave 100% because we knew it can be our last 20 minutes together. But we can continue to be with each other for a couple more days."

Guy Pnini: "I can't explain how happy we are. Not many people believed we can do this after the big loss to Russia, but we showed great character and made it happen. We are especially happy for the people back home in Israel who support us all the time. At all points we believed we can make it, but it was tough because Serbia is a good team. Now we have three more games, and we don't plan to lose them. We'll give our best against any team like today and try to make it to the top eight again."

Yotam Halperin: "When Meir Tapiro went to shoot the last two shots, I knew we'll win this game. He's a great winner. Yaniv Green and Guy Pnini also played great, and this shows it was a team effort. Israel are famous for being fighters and play until the last second. Once we got ahead we held on to it like lions. We're going to Madrid to win more games."

It all comes down to this game. Israel had to go through more than a dozen games to even make it to the group stages of this competition while Serbia spent a lot of time and energy in preparation camp and practice games.

Now they go up against each other with a clear idea of what is at stake – the winners get to go through to the next round in Madrid, while the losers head home and finish in the 13th-16th places.

Last Time Out: Israel suffered a 90-56 loss to Russia yesterday in what was a poor performance for Zvidik Sherf’s side. Serbia meanwhile put up a heroic fight against the defending champions Greece, before losing 68-67 in overtime.
Head-to-Head: In 2005, Israel and hosts Serbia & Montenegro played in the same preliminary round group. For three quarters it was a close game, until the home nation took off to win 93-77. That was Israel’s only defeat in the group. Marko Jaric was the top scorer back in that game with 19 points.

		Israel need a big offensive display from Tapiro

Key Match-up: They play different roles, but Serbia's Milan Gurovic and Israel's Meir Tapiro are the two most lethal offensive weapons of their respective teams and have a lot in common. Both are 32-years-old, both - when in a zone - can score at will and make you wonder how on earth the shot went in. Both have their troubles on the defensive end and play for teams that so far have struggled on offense and the pair know they can shoot much better than what they have shown so far. The difference in the outcome of this game may be down to which one of these two scorers - Gurovic or Tapiro - delivers the best performance.

Statistics: Both teams are among the bottom five in field goal percentage. Serbia is second last with 35.2% while Israel ranks 12th with 39.3%. Neither of the teams managed to score more than 67 points in their games so far.
X-Factor: Once again we go back to Serbia’s Zoran Erceg. Before the game against Greece, he was asked to help Darko Milicic with outside shots and rebounds. He answered that call by going 0-3 from long-range but did pull down 12 boards. Israel's small line-up must focus on Milicic’s dominance in the paint. If Erceg figures out how to use the fact the focus isn't on him, Israel's life will be made very tough.

What It Means: It’s pretty clear - win and advance or lose and go home. Serbia can't imagine finishing in the 13th-16th spots, which would make it their lowest placing since their first EuroBasket in 1947 when they came in 13th. Israel had a long journey just to get to the group stages and they don't want to go home so quickly. They too only once in their history finished worse than the 11th spot, in the 1995 EuroBasket (15th place).