Young stars fired up for European challenge

WITH an average age of just 17, the Irish U20 women’s basketball team will face a difficult assignment when they travel to Portugal next week for the European championship qualifiers but team manager, Debbie Keane from Cork, feels they have the experience and the firepower to get through.

"Unfortunately, we have drawn a pretty tough pool," she admitted. "We are in there with Spain, who are going to be the favourites along with Greece to ultimately win the championship, and Italy who are also very strong.

"But we would hope to beat Portugal and England and it is a 50/50 situation against Belgium. That's a game that we can sneak and emerge in a very good position with three teams to go through."