Bosnia and Herzegovina 78-81 Ireland
Ireland overhauled a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to pick up their first away win in FIBA Women’s EuroBasket Qualifiers since returning to Europe’s top tier in 2021, defeating Group A top seeds Bosnia and Herzegovina 81-78 in Zenica on Saturday.
Sorcha Tiernan made a telling impact off the bench with seven points in the final quarter, while Hazel Finn led the offensive charge on 21 points, to help the team to victory.
The win means that if Ireland secure victory over Israel on Tuesday they will reach the second round of FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers, as one of three best ranked third-placed teams from seven groups.
Ireland, ranked 83rd in the FIBA World Rankings, certainly weren’t overawed by their task against the 29th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina, who they’d beaten in Dublin in November.
“I’m just so happy for the group,” said head coach James Weldon.
“It’s been a tough week of travel and everything and they all remained so positive, the staff and the players have been incredible the last few days. They (Bosnia and Herzegovina) were at home, they were going to be fighting hard for the win, they haven’t won in a while and they came very, very close.
“It is a big step forward for the programme, a first home win and now a first away win and we have a real chance on Tuesday to finish as one of the best-placed third-placed teams.
“Looking at the other groups today, results went our way, so a win on Tuesday would take us into the second round. I think on the back of that performance these players deserve that, hopefully we can pull out another performance out of the bag on Tuesday.”
Ireland face Israel in their final Group A game in a behind-closed-doors fixture on Tuesday at 4.30pm in Riga, Latvia.