Irish women lose European Championship qualifier
Ireland 53 Netherlands 77
Ireland's women have lost their European Basketball Championship qualifier against a very physical Netherlands side at the National Arena tonight.
It was their second European qualifying game, having lost to Norway last weekend and Ireland were hoping that home court advantage could have been the difference between a win and a loss today.
Ireland started brightly with two three-pointers from star player Suzanne Maguire in the opening minutes. However, their lead was short lived as Tanya Broring was on fire for the Netherlands and rolled in five consecutive points followed by a three from Laura Kooij to put them ahead by two.
Ireland remained scoreless for the following three minutes with a lot of open shots not dropping for the home team.
The Netherlands clocked up an eight-point lead, 6-14 with five minutes left in the first quarter.
Ireland managed to close the gap to three points through Maire Guiney, Maguire and Dearbhla Breen but Broring threw up another triple, followed closely by a two from Laura Kooij and there was eight points between them once more.
Kissane and Peat added four more points before the buzzer while Netherlands managed two and at the end of the first Ireland trailed 15-22.
The second quarter will be one to forget for the Irish ladies as they produced a mere eight points in the entire period while the Dutch were shooting the lights out totally 21 points this quarter.
Ireland was being crushed by their opponents outside shooting, Laura Kooij bagged two threes in quick succession while her sister Leonie was also doing damage offensively with 10 points in the quarter.
The Dutch were rebounding better having a height advantage and Ireland’s shooting percentage was poor. At the half-time break the visitors had run away with a 20-point lead, 23-40.
Ireland came out from the break with a big task ahead of them and with that, they upped their intensity. They were doing better defensively but offensively shots were still not converting.
Ireland pressed full court for the majority of the period causing turnovers from the Dutch. As a result of their work defensively the Netherlands produced 16 points to Irelands 15 and at the buzzer the score read 39-58 in favour of The Netherlands.
The leaders came back all guns blazing in the final quarter and Ireland struggled to keep up. If Ireland scored one basket, the Dutch scored three. Despite the Irish lassies never giving up and fighting to the bitter end, the damage had been done in the second quarter and the visiting team were out of reach.
Assistant Coach Steve Ebberly said after the game: “We struggled with our scoring but we have always been a better defensive team.
“We have been finding it harder in the competition games to get the scores we did in the friendlies. It’s just a reflection of the higher quality of play.”
“Netherlands are a very capable side and are good shooters, we knew that coming into the game today. They are the top seed in our group.”
“We have plenty of work to do to get ready for Iceland next week. Maeve and I will be working with the girls to improve out offensive game.”
Ireland play Iceland away next Saturday (September 23) in the final game of the 2006 campaign.
