Conor Meany: Talent is there for Ireland to push on after milestone qualifier win
Lorraine Scanlon was the spark Ireland needed in their clash with Bosnia & Herzegovina. Pic: ©INPHO/James Lawlor
Ireland’s senior women demolished Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday night to get the first win of their EuroBasket qualification campaign. After the mid-week horror show against old foes Luxembourg, a response was needed, and James Weldon found a spark in Lorraine Scanlon. Inserted into the starting lineup, the St Paul’s player was ferocious all over the floor with 9 points and 11 rebounds in the first half, finishing with 11 and 15.
Ireland were passive against Luxembourg and too often looked at Claire Melia for answers. On Saturday though, Ireland never trailed and dominated every statistical category against a team featuring a former WNBA player in their ranks. Scanlon’s energy sparked it, and Hazel Finn’s attitude maintained it. Finn has an irreverent attitude, in the best possible way, and was willing to try things and got her reward for it with 16 points. For this team to push on they need that combination of energy and attitude, where they respect the competition but don’t shy away from it.
Saturday’s win wasn’t the end of the journey; it was just a significant milestone on it. Ireland’s last competitive win, outside of the Small Countries, was an incredible 5,922 days earlier against the Netherlands in Dublin. Michelle Aspell, Susan Moran and Lindsay Peat were some of the names on display that day, but now a financial crisis and a rebuild later, Ireland are finally back as a legitimate part of the qualifiers.
With recent underage success including two medals at Division B level, the talent level is there for Ireland to push on and be even more competitive. They have a chance to show that on Tuesday against Israel, in a game that will bring more negative attention, but should be a marker for where this young team are, given that many of the big names were missing the last time the teams met.
Concern for Demons hasn’t abated after moving to 1-6 with a loss to Eanna. Losing on the road to Eanna is not a major issue as most teams will do that this year. Hope was growing for Demons after a good fight with Belfast last week in the Cup, but they started flat again on Saturday trailing 24-8 before they ever got playing. They did bring it back to six points early in the fourth, but Eanna then cruised to a 98-78 win.
Jarvis Doles scored well but didn’t get much help as Shariff Black continued to struggle. Black is a very good player and has proved himself in other leagues, but things aren’t going well for him now. He was 3/14 shooting and managed just ten points and four turnovers. I still can’t get myself to the point that Demons will be in a battle for relegation, but they do need to get moving soon. Next up is a Cork derby against in form Ballincollig who beat Tralee on Friday night.
It was a huge weekend for St Vincent's as they handed Belfast Star their first loss of the year on Saturday, before going to Limerick and beating Limerick Celtics. The addition of Will Thomas has helped change the trajectory of the northside team. He provides a balance to Jaylyn Richardson’s star power and the big man’s 31 points helped Vincent's move to 4-4 on the year.
It was a tough weekend for Celtics who drop to 2-6 and are one game above the bottom two teams. The first loss of the weekend was a triple overtime heartbreaker to UCD Marian, one which they led by three in the final seconds of double overtime before giving up a buzzer beater and were up one with four seconds left in triple overtime before fouling and losing by one.
With a very short rotation, it was a huge ask for them to turn around and perform again the next day, such is the ask of these gruelling double header weekends. Limerick will take no solace though in wins they could or should have had, they’ll be concerned that they are now adrift from the middle pack and just ahead of Demons and Neptune.
Killester have moved to 5-3 on the year, but only one of those came with an almost full-strength team. Coming into the year, the question was about Killester’s depth and Jonny Grennell’s side have had that tested with Paul Dick missing games and now both Baptise Chazelas and Robert Braswell missing both games of the double header weekend.
Despite missing two of their imports, they easily handled Neptune before running out of steam against a young UCD Marian team who seem to thrive on the double header weekends given their depth of players who Yiannis Liapakis plays. UCD move level with Killester for now, but there’s still the feeling that when Killester are at full health they are one of the top teams in the league.
If Neptune were hoping for a new coach bounce, they haven’t got it, after two very poor offensive performances over the weekend. They scored just 67 points at home against a short handed Killester side, with new American Mike Hayes scoring just one point to go with five turnovers. Hayes did get 10 points on Sunday, but Neptune scored less again with just 65 on the road against a Killorglin team badly beaten the night before by Sligo.
Neptune started the year giving up over 100 points a game, now they’ve slowed the game down, but they aren’t scoring either. They have talent but things just aren’t fitting together yet. With seven losses, Neptune have three big games against Vincent's, Tralee and UCD before Christmas. If they don’t win at least two of those, there will be a lot of worries in the Stadium.
Sligo bounced back from their cup exit with a huge win over Killorglin, before somehow overcoming Tralee, both without John Carroll’s services. Tralee looked to have won the game with Jordan Perkins' late two but a foul at midcourt sent Christian Williams to the line to seal the game. Sligo are now 4-4 with two of those wins coming thanks to last second heroics in Sligo. This is still a team I’m watching out for, especially when they add John Carroll back into the mix.
