Preparations complete as Ireland U16 women depart for FIBA European Championship

Ireland U16 women will become the final age grade team to take to the court at the FIBA European Championship this summer, when they meet Bosnia and Herzegovina in their first group game this Thursday afternoon.

It’s been a long wait for this group. The final squad was announced by head coach Andy Gill back in May and since then, they’ve been busy in the lab of the practice court and participating in as many preparation games as time allowed to get to this point. Much like their counterparts in the men’s team, Ireland showed up fantastically at the prestigious Dussman Trophy in Luxembourg before travelling to Nottingham to take on Great Britain in a three-game series in the middle of July.

Another strong performance there raised expectations in the group that combinations were beginning to gel and they could be a threat to anyone when the FIBA European Championship rolled around. That confidence will only have grown in the interim. Physical training sessions in tandem with a 3-0 series sweep over Luxembourg at the National Basketball Arena a week ago caps off a near perfect preparation for the group.

Ireland are in Group A alongside Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, with the opening contest coming against the latter this Thursday, August 18^th. The team departed for Podgorica earlier this morning with no new injury concerns and very hopeful of making an impact on the ground.

Head Coach Andy Gill said ahead of departing Dublin: 

One of our key motivators as coaches is development and seeing a pathway for these players to play senior basketball. It was amazing to see a number of players I coached at this age grade in 2013 making their senior international debuts last weekend. Hopefully there's a number of players taking part this week that will make that same transition in the future. 

This is why we play this game, for the challenges and there's a number of different challenges ahead of us in Podgorica over the coming week but I think this group is ready for them. 

There’s a strong Liffey Celtics element to the team. Four were chosen, Kelly Bracken, Ciara Brogan, Clara Boyce and the MVP of the Home Nations Tournament in May, Shauna Curran. Eight clubs are represented in all. Celtics, Dublin Lions, Meteors, Fr. Matthews, Portlaoise Panthers, East Cavan Eagles and MUK Bydgoszcz.

As has been the case in the other age grades, the top two teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals, with the remaining teams vying it out in the classification games. Ireland will be looking towards qualification for the last eight as a solid target. After that as we all know on any given day, teams at this level can beat anyone.

Fixtures:

• Ireland v Bosnia & Herzegovina, Thursday 18th August, Time: 15:30, Venue: Podgorica
• Ireland v Netherlands, Friday 19th August, Time: 15:30, Venue: Podgorica
• Ireland v North Macedonia, Monday 22nd August, Time: 20:00, Venue: Podgorica
• Ireland v Serbia, Tuesday 23rd August, Time: 17:45, Venue: Podgorica

Full Squad:

Kelly Bracken (Liffey Celtics), Ciara Brogan (Liffey Celtics), Clara Boyce (Liffey Celtics), Rachel Bowdren (Fr. Mathews), Shauna Curran (Liffey Celtics), Karolina Gierszal (MUK Bydgoszcz), Caoimhe Gilligan (Dublin Lions), Leah McMahon (St. Paul’s), Aisling Moran (Meteors), Shannon Quigley (Portlaoise Panthers), Emma Tolan (East Cavan Eagles), Grace Prenter.