Ireland’s U18 men name final 12-person squad for FIBA U18 EuroBasket

Ireland U-18 men’s head coach Niall Berry has named his final 12-player squad for this summer’s FIBA U18 EuroBasket, which takes place in Skopje, Macedonia from July 26^th to August 4^th.

Titans BC player Declan Gbinigie captains the side and is one of four players who represented Ireland at last year’s U18’s tournament, with Jacob ‘Kuba’ Malecki, Victor Okojie and Joshua Osayanrhion also selected. Osayanrhion recently helped Tralee Warriors to the U20 Men’s National League title, the forward scoring 24 points in the final.

Éanna’s Adam Charles and Limerick Lions’ Darragh Horkan represented Ireland’s U16’s at FIBA U16 European Championships last year and make the step up to the U18’s. 

Darragh Horkan playing in last year's FIBA U16 European Championships

Ireland are in Group C, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Ukraine, North Macedonia and Cyprus. They come into this summer’s FIBA U18 EuroBasket off the back of winning the U18 Four Nations in Dundee last month, with Dublin Lions Harry Scully named tournament MVP and Horkan included in the tournament’s All-Star five.

Harry Scully in action for Ireland at U18 Four Nations in Dundee.

Head coach Niall Berry said: “After months of evaluation and preparation I’m delighted to announce our final squad of 12 for this summer’s FIBA U18 EuroBasket. We knew at the beginning of this process that this was going to be an incredibly difficult squad to pick, due to the depth of talent available to us this year.

“The level of this group is a credit to the players themselves, who strive to continuously improve and chase their personal goals. I’d also like to acknowledge the clubs and club coaches, who put in the hours and hours of work to provide a platform to help these players to grow and develop. The Basketball Ireland academy structure also keeps these players on a path toward international standards, while the international coaches they’ve had in the past deserve credit too, who have challenged these young men to elevate to meet those standards.

ˇWe’ve left a number of international-calibre players on the reserve list this time around, who will be bitterly disappointed, and rightly so. Their commitment and effort was nothing short of outstanding and they all have very bright futures ahead of them. However, we are very excited about the group we’ve selected, the togetherness the whole group has shown in such a short space of time, and the consistency of performance that will help us to what we hope will be a successful campaign this summer.”

Ireland U18 men's squad: Adam Charles (Éanna BC), Darragh Horkan (Limerick Lions), Harry Scully (Dublin Lions), Fortune Igbokwe (Titans BC), Declan Gbinigie (Titans BC), Joshua Osayanrhion (Tralee Warriors), Matiss Ogle (BC Tauras), Luke Seltzer (Pierson High School, NY), Ebenezer Ehigie (Westtown School, PA), Stanley Njekwe (Gill St. Bernard’s, NJ), Jacob ‘Kuba’ Malecki (Gill St. Bernard’s, NJ), Victor Okojie (Wesley Christian School, KY).