Strong Irish squad face hectic schedule

AFTER an exciting performance against Latvia in Riga on Monday night, the Irish basketball team travelled to Lithuania yesterday where they put the finishing touches to their preparations for a hectic week of European championship action.

Tomorrow evening (5.15 pm) they play Malta at the National Basketball Arena and they then travel to Geneva for a midweek game against Switzerland, then they are back in Tymon Park for what should be a sell-out game against Slovakia.

Tomorrow evening’s game against Malta should be the easiest of the three match campaign, which will decide the level they play at next time around.

When they met last year in the first leg, Ireland took control of the game from the outset and eventually won 90-51.

“Malta don’t have any full-time professionals but they are not to be taken for granted,” the Irish Manager, Sean O’Reilly, insisted. “We are focused on this game.”

He admitted that Ireland are relaunching their European championship campaign with what is regarded as probably their strongest squad ever.

They are bolstered by the return of Cal Bowdler while Conor Grace is back from scholarship in the US.

Both Chris Bracey and Justen Naughton also return to the team for a second straight year after very successful seasons with their respective clubs in Europe.

Naughton helped Gmunden Swans to win the 2005 Austrian title for the first time, while Bracey finished as the fourth top scorer in the Swiss league averaging 21.6 points per game.

Needless to say Bracey will be the centre of attention in Geneva on Wednesday night when they face Switzerland.

They all featured on Monday in Riga where they held Latvia to their lowest winning margin in a long time - stubbornly going under 82-64.

There were huge performances from Pat Burke, who has just signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns, and the ever present co-captain, Jay Laranaga, while Conor Grace came off the bench for a blinder.

“It was a great performance against one of the superpowers of world basketball,” Manager O’Reilly admitted. “We will be very happy if we can reproduce it over the coming week.”

The game against Lithuania last night was finely balanced for a long time with Ireland only down by a mere 9 points with 7 minutes left in the final quarter but the Lithuanians broke away and Ireland were unable to narrow the gap, eventually going down 97-62.

The game against Malta should be something of a formality and probably an ideal opportunity to regroup in advance of the trip to Geneva.

“Switzerland are big and can be very physical,” O’Reilly said. “We have had some tough battles in recent years but we came out on top in the last two so it will be interesting. We will be hoping to maintain that sequence.”

However, they are under no illusions about the enormity of the task that will confront them tomorrow week when they play host to Slovakia. Not so long ago they would have been total underdogs going into a game like this but things have changed dramatically thanks to the commitment shown by the players under the astute direction of Gerry Fitzpatrick.

Ireland: Jay Laranaga (co-captain), Dan Callaghan (co-captain), Marty Conlon (co-captain); Lorcan Precious, Justen Naughton, Pat Burke, Conor Grace, Chris Bracey, Danny Mills, Cal Bowdler, Jim Moran, Mike Bree. Coach: Gerry Fitzpatrick; Assistant Coaches: Roger Kelleher and Joey Boylan; Athletic Trainer: Randy Dillon; General Manager: Sean O’Reilly.