Local twins part of squad to open European Championships with win
Offaly twins Ellie and Emma Glavin were part of the Irish Under 20 Women's Basketball Squad which took the scalp of Greece last Friday night at the European Championships in Craiova, Romania. This 80-74 point win would rank as one of Irish Basketball's most noteworthy results at international level as Greece are recognised as one of the sport's powerhouses.
Local girls Ellie and Emma Glavin from Tegan Court, Mucklagh, are important members of the squad. The result, while unexpected, showed the huge progress this group of girls have made under the stewardship of coach Karl Kilbride from Killester Dublin. When you factor in that the Greek team had seven players on university scholarships In the United States at top level basketball universities such as Kansas, Stanford California, Santa Clara, Western Michigan and Canisius you get a picture of the magnitude of achievement in this victory.
The team play both Romania and Georgia in their next group games and would be hopeful now of progressing to the quarter final stages.
Emma and Ellie are daughters of well-known Garda Jer Glavin and Cork originally, and Irene Glavin from Rhode. Irene's bother Cathal Malone represented Ireland at underage in basketball also, so the talent is in the genes.
While Ellie was a non-playing substitute in this game, she would be hopeful of getting game time in the five games to come in the tournament. Emma impressed in the game against Greece playing over 21 minutes and contributing hugely on defence while also recording the second highest assist statistics of three direct assists for scores. Emma played the final 8 minutes of the game when the result was in the melting pot.
Both girls are looking forward to next season's senior domestic league starting in October where the two girls are part of National University of Galway's Mystics Superleague team along with another local girl Meadhbh O'Brien from Ballinamere. All three girls are students at present in NUI Galway.