Women's Hoops: Israelis fall to Slovaks in final tune-up for Euros

By ALLON SINAI
Israel's women's basketball team lost its final warm-up game before next week's European Championships, suffering a 75-51 defeat to Slovakia on Sunday. The national team finished the 2007 EuroBasket tournament in 13th and will face Belarus on June 7 in Latvia in the first game of its fifth-ever appearance in the European Championships. Israel will play Italy the following day and will wrap up its games in Group D when it faces France on June 9. Eli Rabi's team trailed throughout Sunday's encounter and lost yet another game in what has been a rocky preparation period. "I'm not concerned because the team is okay," Rabi said ahead of this weekend's games after his team lost its first four warm-up contests. "We are aware of the level we'll meet there. We chose to meet teams of the highest level in the preparation matches so that we won't have any surprises coming to the EuroBasket. We feel we'll meet our highest expectations."