Mucklagh twins help Ireland to eighth place finish
The curtain has come down on Ireland's U20 Women's involvement in the European Basketball Championship this week. Ireland would have taken an 8th place finish in the B tournament as a very positive result heading out to Romania, but after defeating Greece, Georgia and Romania, it's a case of what might have been for the girls in green this summer. After Ireland U20s beat Georgia 84-58 they qualified as group winners to take on Switzerland in the Tournament Quarter Final.
Mucklagh's Emma and Ellie Glavin both had excellent games against Georgia, amazingly they both logged the exact same stats with both girls scoring 8 points each, taking 4 rebounds, 2 steals each and 1 assist each.
Unfortunately, the quarter final against Switzerland did not go as Irish team hoped. A combination of sickness and a few knocks from previous games led to a slow start for the Irish girls where shots just did not drop. The team fell behind by 15 at one stage before staging an incredible 2nd half come back to narrow the gap to 4 points in the 4th quarter. Eventually the girls ran out of road against a fine Switzerland team who went on the semi final.
Offaly's Emma Glavin saved her best performance of the tournament for this game. She was second highest scorer with 12 points, a mixture of 2 Threes, 2 layups & 2 free throws added to an offensive rebound and a steal. Her incredible fitness was required as she played nearly 30 minutes game time, which was one of the most of any girl across both teams.
Classification games continued for Ireland after the Quarter-Final loss where they came up just short against Iceland and Norway.
Ellie played 15 minutes across these games against Iceland and Norway where her all-action defence made life very difficult for her taller Scandinavian opponents. Emma again proved to be one of Ireland's most effective players on both ends of the court. Her ability to hit long range three-point shots helped Ireland to keep the scoreboard ticking in both games. She eventually finished with 13 points against Iceland including 5 made free throws and 8 points including 2 threes against Norway. Emma's averages for the whole tournament put her in top 5 across all Irish players for minutes played and scoring. She was Ireland's most efficient three-point shooter with an impressive 36% score rate from shots taken and an 82% scoring rate from free throws.
Offaly interest in the European Basketball Championships is not over however as Úna Ó Brien from Ballinamere heads to Montenegro this week to represent Ireland at the Under 16 age level. Úna's'first game in on Thursday at 8pm Irish time against Sweden and can be viewed live on the Youtube FIBA channel.