All You Need To Know: Ireland v Bosnia & Herzegovina

Ireland play our penultimate FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 Qualifier this eveningagainst Bosnia & Herzegovina  in Zenica's Arena "Husejin Smajlovic" at 19:00 Irish time, with live coverage on the TG4 Player and app, as well as the FIBA YouTube Channel.

COMPETITION FORMAT

Defeat to Luxembourg on Wednesday dropped Ireland's record to 1-3, with our only win in Group A thus far coming against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Dublin in the reverse fixture in November. A first away win since returning ot FIBA Women's EuroBasket qualifying in 2021 would take our qualification chances down to the last game against Israel in Riga on Tuesday. 

Both Israel and Luxembourg have already qualified ahead of gameday five, so James Weldon's squad are relying on progressing as one of the best third placed teams for the second round of qualifiers, which get underway in November of this year. 

Looking ahead to the campaign, Head Coach James Weldon said: 

"We probably have to do a better job on the boards that we did on Wednesday night. I think we have to play pretty much  as well as we did on offense, keep taking the open shots we create and play with confidence. We would have learned a lot from the Luxembourg game as a group and we will take that into tonight's game. Bosnia are very good on pick and roll actions, particularly with Smalls - so if we can stop the ball at the point of attack it'll help us in defending the paint area. Looking back at the tape against Luxembourg obviously we were very disappointed with the loss, but it was overall a positive performance and we will bring that into the contest with Bosnia."

WATCH

The game will be broadcast live on the TG4 Player here with tip-off at 1900.

SQUAD NEWS

Mimi Clarke is set to be available for the game, having missed Wednesday's meeting with Luxembourg. The remainder of the squad has come through that contest injury free. 

OPPOSITION VIEW

Bosnia are ranked 29th in the FIBA Women's World Rankings, with Ireland in 83rd. They sit bottom of the group with a 0-3 record. Their most recent defeat coming against Israel in Riga on Wednesday, where Jana Guska and Kamiah Smalls led the way in a 94-71 defeat. 

Their coach  Emir Halimić believes that the Dragons can break their losing streak in this match.

"I can promise that the girls will give 100 percent in the match. I believe that they are aware and want to win, to end that black streak. As for the game, we see that there is progress, but, of course, we need experience... I hope that we win and end that series, that the girls see and understand that we have quality and that they can play with everyone".

IRELAND WOMEN’S TEAM ROSTER

Hazel Finn (Trinity Meteors), Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell) Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Abigail Rafferty (GDESSA-Barreiro, Portugal), Bronagh Power-Cassidy (Villanova Wildcats), Enya Maguire (HGB Horbisa Greenkw Barakaldo, Spain), Lorraine Scanlon (Utility Trust St. Paul’s), Michelle Clarke (Killester), Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats), Annaliese Murphy (UCC Glanmire), Maura Fitzpatrick (Caledonia Gladiators), Emer Dunne (UCC Glanmire), Caitlin Gloeckner (Cleveland Rockets)