The Icelandic national team in men’s basketball suffered a great loss, 83-110, against Israel in the Laugardalsvöllur arena in Reykjavík yesterday. Israel was in the lead from the very start of the game, never giving Iceland a break.
Basketball in Iceland. Archive photo by Geir Ólafsson.
To have a chance against the taller and heavier Israeli players, the Icelanders would have needed a solid defense, which was lacking in yesterday’s game, Morgunblaðið reports.
In addition, some of Iceland’s best shots weren’t performing as well as they could, while others, Jón Arór Stefánsson and Haukur Helgi Pálsson, put up a good fight. The latter scored the most points for Iceland.
The game was part of the preliminary round to the European Basketball Championship. Iceland is now participating again after a long break. The team’s first game was against Serbia and on Friday Iceland will play against Montenegro.
In other sports news, Reykjavík club KR claimed the Iceland Cup for the second year in a row by beating Stjarnan from Garðabær 2-1 in the final at the capital’s Laugardalsvöllur stadium on Friday.
Never before has an Icelandic football team beat as many top division teams in the Iceland Cup; this season KR won against five other top division teams on its path to victory, visir.is reports.
KR’s hero was Baldur Sigurðsson who scored the winning goal. “The feeling is magnificent. It is the third time that I win the cup and the feeling just keeps getting better,” he commented.
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ESA
