Ireland advance to 9-16th classification at FIBA U18 Men's Youth EuroBasket

Ireland will contest the 9-16th classification bracket at FIBA U18 Men's Youth EuroBasket, after a 54-51 victory against Bosnia & Herzegovina secured third place in Group C following the opening five games in North Macedonia. They will now face the 4th place team in Group D, Georgia in their first classification game tomorrow at 15:00. 

It's the first time an Irish side has reached this stage since 2019 - with only an overtime loss against hosts North Macedonia in their opening game of the tournament seperating Niall Berry's side from a place in the quarter-finals. Ireland found it tough to bounce back from those extra minutes in the legs the following day during a 71-56 loss to Czechia, who went on to finish second and advance to the last eight themselves. 

Wait for the close up of this Luke Seltzer bucket for Ireland U18 men! 🤩#Greenmeansgo ☘️ | #IrishBasketball pic.twitter.com/nHYmuGAI9J

— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) July 31, 2024

From there it's been an exhibition of basketball on the court and resilience and team spirit off the court. Three sucessive wins, 67-53 over Cyprus, 98-79 against Ukraine and 57-54 in their final group stage fixture with Bosnia & Herzegovina has put the team in a great position to set a fresh standard for Irish basketball in their age bracket. 

"I’m delighted with the performances of the boys in the group stages," said head coach Niall Berry. "When you look at it, we were half a second away from a top 8 finish with Declan’s ruled out buzzer beater against North Macedonia. Overall though, we’ve played some very good basketball and showed some real team unity throughout and we’re looking forward to seeing how far we can take it in the classification games”.

Each player on the roster as made a telling contribution during the first five games, as Ireland showed themselves to be formidable in defence as well as offence. Harry Scully has orchastrated things well from the point, currently leading the team in scoring with 10.6ppg, along with 2.6 assists. Joshua Osayanrhion, Stanley Njekwe and Fortune Igbokwe - who have all had highlight reel moments - are close behind Scully in scoring with 9.4ppg (Osayanrhion and Njekwe) and 8.4ppg (Igbokwe). 

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eEffectiveness on the glass has been a big factor for the group. Viktor Okojie is top of that category with 7.4 boards per game, followed by Jakub Malecki, and captain Declan Gbinigie who both have 5.2 rebounds per game to date. Gibinige, who is the captain is pleased with the team's overall performance going into the knockout stages: “We’re happy to have been able to secure wins in our last 3 group games and we hope to carry this momentum into our classification games," he told Basketball Ireland. 

Next up for Ireland will be the aforementioned meeting with Georia in Skopje on Friday at 15:00.