Ireland suffer damaging defeat to Luxembourg in FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers

BOUNCE BACK: Ireland's hopes of progressing to the next stage of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers suffered a huge blow as they fell to defeat away to Luxembourg.

Ireland's hopes of progressing to the next stage of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers suffered a huge blow as they fell to a 85-73 defeat away to Luxembourg.

The Girls in Green will need to bounce back quickly if they are the qualify from Group A, having now lost three of their four games with away trips to Bosnia and Israel (which will be played behind closed doors in Latvia) to come in the next few days.

“I think overall a positive performance enough performance away from home," said Ireland head coach James Weldon.

"It is always difficult, a slow start, we got well beaten on the boards, they beat us by over 20 on the boards and 14 or 15 second chance points and when you look at it, it was a 12-point game.

"I thought there was good energy in the group, I thought it was a much-improved performance than Dublin (against Luxembourg in November). They are a much higher ranked team, they almost qualified for the last EuroBasket finals, they lost out on points difference. I am sure they were determined to get through.

“We’ll just move on to the next game, I don’t think we’re completely eliminated yet, if we can get the last two wins there is a chance of being one of the best third-best placed teams, because the margin in the Israel game was pretty tight.

"We’ll regroup, we’ll analyse, we travel tomorrow and we start preparing for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who looked much better today against Israel and it is going to be a difficult challenge over there, but the vibe is positive and we move on to the next one.”

Luxembourg led from start to finish in this contest and began strongly, Anne Simon’s three and a Dione Madjo layup handed them an early 10-2 lead.

Sarah Hickey’s three point jump in the third minute had James Weldon’s outfit trailing 10-5.

Luxembourg kicked on and extended their advantage to 13, 22-9, following another Madjo layup with three and a half minutes left in the quarter.

Ireland rallied and closed the deficit, Enya Maguire neatly picked out Abigail Rafferty in the paint for a layup and it was 22-13 with two minutes to go.

Maura Fitzpatrick, playing her first Women’s EuroBasket game since 2021, downed a layup to leave it at 22-15 by the end of the quarter.

Simon and Enya Maguire traded three point shots in the early stages of the second quarter, to leave it poised at 27-20.

Luxembourg then went on an 13-point run, finished off by Joyce Isi Etute’s layup, to lead 40-20 four and a half minutes in. Hazel Finn finally snapped that run to kickstart an eight-point scoring run for Ireland, Rafferty and Finn bagging a pair of layups each.

The potent Simon landed her fourth three of the contest to make it 43-28 with three minutes to go.

Again Finn responded, with a three and two free throws, to help her to a 13 point tally by half-time. Luxembourg would have the final say through another Etute layup, she’d accumulated 17 points by the break to help the home side into a 45-33 lead. Etute was finish with a game-high 27 points.

Ireland got off to the perfect start to the third quarter thanks to an Edel Thornton jump shot and Hickey’s fast break and layup, to cut the deficit to eight, 45-37.

Luxembourg kept Ireland at arm’s length, Bronagh Power Cassidy three Ireland midway through the quarter made it 56-46, only for Simon to respond immediately with her sixth three of the contest. 

A five-point run from Rafferty – a three and two free throws - narrowed it to 10 once more, 61-51, with two minutes to go, however Luxembourg would lead 68-56 by the end of the third.

Ireland needed to make early inroads in the fourth quarter, but Enya Maguire’s three in the opening seconds was cancelled out shortly afterwards by the impressive Etute. Thorton’s three point jump shot saw Ireland trail by 10, 81-71, with three minutes to go.

Ireland couldn’t get any closer, Rafferty had the final points of the contest with a layup, to bring her to a team-high tally of 17.

Ireland: Michelle Clarke (DNP), Sarah Hickey (10), Hazel Finn (15), Emer Dunne (0) Enya Maguire (11), Edel Thornton (5), Abigail Rafferty (17), Annaliese Murphy (0), Maura Fitzpatrick (4), Sorcha Tiernan (2), Lorraine Scanlon (2), Bronagh Power-Cassidy (7).

Luxembourg: Jay Baum (DNP), Anne Simon (26), Svenia Nurenberg (5), Magaly Meynadier (5), Dana Wies (0), Kathryn Missavage (0), Liz Irthum (0), Esmeralda Skrijelj (5), Dionne Madjo (14), Sofie Olsen (0), Joyce Isi Etute (27), Julie Mangen (3).