Israel Snatch Improbable EuroBasket Place

Israel had an incredible escape at home to defeat Great Britain in their opening EuroBasket 2009 qualifying game and on Saturday, they pulled off an even more impressive feat by destroying the Czech Republic 98-61 to earn a trip to next year's final round in Poland.
The Group D triumph improved Israel to 3-3, and the margin of victory was so large that it made their goal coefficient better than both Bulgaria and France.
Only the four Division A group winners, and the best three second-place teams advanced to the final round.
France ended up as the only second-place team not to earn a trip to Poland and will instead have to enter the Additional Qualifying Round next year.
The Czechs actually went into Saturday night's play with the best goal differential of the three teams with 2-3 records in Group D but they clearly did not recover from the huge disappointment of their 67-63 home defeat to Britain on Wednesday.
The setback has dropped them to bottom of Group D and into the Relegation Round.