International

Aug 23 2022

Ireland scare favourites Serbia in final group game at FIBA European Championship

Ireland U16 women gave tournament favourites Serbia a real scare, before succumbing to an 80-45 defeat in their final FIBA European Championship group game in Montenegro.

It’s not the end of the road for Ireland, who will now drop into the 9^th-16^th place classification games with the aim of finishing as high as possible.

Ireland knew a fast start was required against the much-fancied Serbians, but Andy Gill must have been in dreamland as the hot handed Kelly Bracken drained her third, three-point shot in less than a minute to give Ireland an 11-2 advantage with 7:45 on the clock in the first. Serbia looked shellshocked and it was no surprise that their head coach Biljana Stankovic called an immediate time out to rally her troops. Her words of encouragement seemed to steady the ship for the remainder of the quarter, but Ireland continued to display incredibly stout defense and incessant hustle. Creating further opportunities for Emma Tolan, Ciara Brogan and Caoimhe Gilligan to maintain their advantage as the period drew to a close at 18-13.

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Realising this was proving their toughest test to-date, the previously unbeaten Serbs came off the bench with all the fire that Ireland brought in the first quarter. Their leading scorer in the tournament Lana Maric began to find her range and a 7-0 run to take the lead for the first time with 6:25 remaining in the half-had head coach Andy Gill signalling for a calming timeout of his own. Returning to the floor Ireland needed a score to get back on track from a five-point deficit and they got it through a great steal and layup by the energetic Leah McMahon.

The class of the Serbian shooting was starting to tell though, having gone 0/6 from three in the opening quarter, they finished the half by making all four efforts from beyond the arc. Ireland continued to stay in touch through another Kelly Bracken long range effort but having been outgunned 26-6 in the second ten-minute spell, they trailed 39-27 as the teams returned to the locker rooms.

The exertion of two, hard fought games earlier this week and the win over North Macedonia was evident in the Irish performance in the second half. The willingness to work on both ends of the floor never faltered, but Serbia began to get many more open looks, highlighting the clinical edge that has them ranked as one of the favourites for the competition. Andy Gill’s side battled valiantly to curb the widening margin through baskets by Clara Boyce, another from Gilligan and a swift four points from the hands of Aisling Moran, but by the middle of the fourth Ireland looked like they needed the whistle and the recovery room.

The positives from this display are endless. That opening quarter performance should be a lesson to Irish players across all age grades that given the right performance levels, they can live with the best Europe has to offer. The value of testing themselves in this environment is endless and although the score had reached 80-45 in favour of Serbia by the close of play, this group can be satisfied they left it all on the court. That’s all any coach can ask for.

Ireland will now have a hard-earned rest day before taking on the third placed team in Group ‘B’. That turned out to be quite the competitive group with three teams – Bulgaria, Montenegro and Turkey all finishing with a 2-1 record. Montenegro lost out by the narrowest of margins, just one point separating themselves and Bulgaria, who advance to the knockout rounds.