Team Ireland’s basketballers were beaten 14-10 by Slovenia in their first outing of the European Games.
Two outside shots from Niamh Dwyer narrowed the gap to a single point with 32 seconds remaining before a rapid-fire response from the tournament’s sixth seeds pushed them through.
“It’s an encouraging first game, but we’re disappointed,” said Team Captain Suzanne Maguire. “We really wanted this one. I think towards the end of the game when we were getting things right, we knew we could have had them.But we didn’t do it right for long enough and 3×3 is not forgiving. You run out of time very quickly and we did today,” she said.
Ireland opened the scoring through Orla O’Reilly and their aggressive defense forced a number of shot-clock violations. The Slovenians however soon used the 6’2’’ Masa Pirsic inside to open up a six-point lead.
Ireland regrouped after a timeout with 2:45 left to go and O’Reilly pulled up to hit a jump shot before Niamh Dwyer’s perimeter shooting brought them right back into contention.
O’Reilly finished the game with five points while Suzanne Maguire also got on the scoresheet.
Ireland will play their remaining group games against Spain and Slovakia tomorrow before the knockout phase of the competition on Thursday.
Wed 24 June, Basketball Arena, Baku
13:10 – Spain vs. Ireland, Main Court
15:30 – Slovakia vs. Ireland, Secondary Court
All times are in Ireland time.
Report by Ross O’Donoghue
Media & Communications Manager
Basketball Ireland
