All You Need To Know: FIBA Women's EuroBasket Qualifier Ireland v Latvia

Ireland play our final FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier on Sunday at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin in front of a sold out crowd. The Group E fixture against Latvia will tip-off at 17:00, with live coverage on the TG4 Player, as well as the FIBA YouTube Channel.

COMPETITION FORMAT

Ireland have been contesting Group E in FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualifying, with group games taking place across three windows, this week, November 2024 and February 2024. James Weldon’s side come into the contest against Latvia in fourth place in the group.

The winners of the eight groups - not including Group I - will qualify for the Final Round alongside the four best-ranked runners-up with the four hosts completing the 16-team field for FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025.

Speaking following Thursday's loss to France, head coach James Weldon said: 

Look I felt France were incredible tonight, you know, just almost unplayable and I suppose the scoreline sort of reflects that at the end. It's very difficult to match up with them, like this group certainly is very close to winning the gold medal in the Olympics a few months ago against the USA, losing by just a point so just a very, very good quality team. 

We'll have to regroup quickly as a collective. We've got a big game coming up on Sunday at home, in front of a packed crowd at the National Basketball Arena and we want to finish off this qualifying campaign on a high.

WATCH

The game will be broadcast live on the TG4 Player here with tip-off at 1700 or on the FIBA YouTube Channel.

SQUAD NEWS

Bridget Herlihy is in line for a return to the court, having sat out Thursday's game against France due to injury. 

OPPOSITION VIEW

A victory for the Latvian national team would guarantee second place and maintain their chances of qualifying for the final tournament. 

Speaking after their most recent win on Thursday, Latvian national team head coach Mārtiņš Gulbis said: “In the third quarter, everything went as planned, we controlled the game and achieved a big lead. The plan to play a lot with a small squad against the fast Israelis was justified. Unsuccessful episodes in the attack undermined confidence, in the last quarter the attack became too uniform and predictable. However, it would not be right to give in to emotions after the victory. We did the main thing – we won a victory, which preserves our chances of qualifying. Let's prepare for the fight in Ireland, we definitely have reserves to improve our performance."

IRELAND WOMEN’S TEAM ROSTER

Abigail Rafferty (Oakland Wolves, England), Áine O’Connor, Hazel Finn, Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Amy Dooley (Midlands Park Portlaoise Panthers), Bridget Herlihy (Unicaja Baloncesto, Spain), Lauryn Homan, Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell), Claire Melia (University of Ferrol, Spain), Kate Hickey, Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats), Michelle Clarke (Killester).