The Ireland Senior Women’s team fly to Norway today
after a successful two-game friendly tournament in Estonia, that saw them
finish with one win and one loss against the hosts, who operate in the A
Division of European basketball.
The first leg of the trip saw James Weldon’s charges
lose out by 10 points in their opening clash on Tuesday evening, before
securing a hugely impressive win over Estonia on Wednesday evening. The team
now face into the next series of games, a two-game friendly against Norway in
Oslo.
Reflecting on the games in Estonia and looking ahead
to Norway, head coach James Weldon stated: “I’m really pleased after the win.
Our defense was really good and we improved on small things. We organized this
trip to try and replicate a European Championships format. Yesterday, we had to
learn how to deal with a loss and bounce back from that, now we have to learn
how to deal with a win and it’s important that we bring the same intensity to
Norway now. We are really looking forward to this second leg of games. As we
saw in Cork last year, Norway are a very good team, so we must be ready for a
difficult challenge tomorrow.”
Indeed, looking back on their games in Estonia,
there were a lot of key learnings for Ireland. The opening game against the
hosts saw Ireland lose out by 10 points, 77-67. Ireland struggled in the early
stages, trailing 20-7 at the end of the first quarter and 37-22 at the half. A
superb second half from the women in green though saw them right back in the
game, with a fantastic defensive effort seeing them claim 18 steals – eight of
these courtesy of co-captain, Edel Thornton. Grainne Dwyer dominated under the
boards, but despite the much-improved display, Estonia still had the edge at
the full time buzzer, 77-67.
The team’s second game in Tallinn though was markedly
different from the off, as the side showed remarkable teamwork to emphatically
defeat the host side 69-53. It was obvious that Ireland had taken massive
confidence from their second-half performance the day previous, and they built
on it in style in this second clash, dominating from the start to lead 12-8 at
the end of the first. The strong form continued into the second, including a
remarkable stretch in which they made 10 consecutive defensive stops, to
stretch their lead to 37-25 by half time.
They didn’t relent in the third quarter and when
newcomer Anna Maguire hit a huge shot just inside the three-point line, they
had extended their advantage to 19 points, 46-27. Estonia inevitably made a run
to whittle the lead down to 48-37 by the end of the third quarter, but when
Anna Kelly heroically stood for a charge midway through the fourth quarter,
Ireland regained the momentum to see out the win.
The squad face Norway in Oslo over the coming days, where they will be boosted by the additions of Claire Rockall and Aine McKenna. Quarterly updates will be available on Basketball Ireland’s Twitter page, @bballirl.
IRELAND
SENIOR WOMEN FIXTURES
(TWO-GAME
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY IN OSLO, NORWAY)
NOTE: All times are Irish times
Friday, August 30th
Norway v Ireland, 18.00
Saturday, August 31st
Norway v Ireland, 16.00
IRELAND
SENIOR WOMEN RESULTS
(TWO-GAME
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY IN ESTONIA)
GAME 1 (Tuesday, August 27th)
Result:
Estonia 77-67 Ireland
IRELAND: Anna Kelly (22), Grainne Dwyer (17), Aine
O’Connor (10), Hannah Thornton (9), Edel Thornton (8), Fiona Scally (1), Cathy
Kavanagh, Anna Maguire, Aisling McCann, Lynn Tunnah.
GAME 2 (Wednesday, August 28th)
Result:
Estonia 59-63 Ireland
IRELAND: Gráinne Dwyer (17), Anna Kelly (16), Edel
Thornton (12), Áine O’Connor (9), Hannah Thornton (7), Anna Maguire (4), Lynn
Tunnah (2), Fiona Scally (2), Cathay Kavanagh, Aisling McCann.
Ireland
Senior Women’s Squad for Friendly Tournament
Aine McKenna (Ambassador UCC Glanmire);
Aine O’Connor (Courtyard Liffey Celtics);
Aisling McCann (Pyrobel Killester);
Anna Kelly (previously Visby Ladies, Sweden);
Anna Maguire (Houston Baptist University, USA);
Cathy Kavanagh (WIT Wildcats);
Claire Rockall (Maree);
Edel Thornton (committed to Trinity Meteors);
Fiona Scally (Maree);
Grainne Dwyer (Fr. Mathews);
Hannah Thornton (Pyrobel Killester);
Lynn Tunnah (Griffith College Templeogue)
