BASKETBALL Double Bill at National Basketball Arena

The National Basketball Arena plays host to two big European qualifiers this Saturday with the senior women continuing their assault at home to Switzerland, while the men take on Luxembourg. Ireland's senior women return to European action after a morale boosting win away to Slovenia midweek.

The 82-66 success over Slovenia has revived their European hopes with Switzerland set to provide the latest test this Saturday. Ireland recorded a comfortable 79-65 win away to Switzerland in their first round of qualifiers in 2008 but Head Coach Mark Scannall is wary of their threat in particular their high scoring forward Karen Twehues. Twehues is averaging 19 points per game for the Swiss and was impressive against Montenegro on Wednesday despite their 76-46 defeat. "Switzerland will be disappointed with their loss against Montenegro but they already won this year against Iceland so we will be wary," said Coach Scannall. "We produced a very good display away to Switzerland last year and hopefully we can reproduce that kind of performance in front of our own fans.

"The Swiss have a real talent in Twehues, who is regarded as one of the finest players in Europe," he added. "We did a good job on Twehues last year and the same again is required if her performances against Iceland and Montenegro are anything to go by. "The win over Slovenia was the perfect response to the loss to Montenegro and it was a real team display and the perfect way to prepare for another home game."

Meanwhile, Irish senior men's forward, Colin O'Reilly, believes the side has the perfect opportunity to return to winning ways when they host Luxembourg on Saturday. Ireland suffered an 98-73 defeat to European giants Georgia on Wednesday but O'Reilly was heartened by the teams display. "It was a lot better than our performance against Sweden and I know we certainly made progress so we can't wait for Saturday," said O'Reilly. "We have a bigger team this year and feel that will be a real advantage when we take on Luxembourg."

Ireland's solitary win in the group came away to Luxembourg in 2008 and O'Reilly is expecting the winless run in 2009 will come to an end on Saturday. "We really want to give our home crowd a win after the disappointment of the game with Sweden," added O'Reilly. There will be a fantastic buzz in the Arena on Saturday particularly after the senior women winning during the week and we want to be able to give the crowd something to shout for as well. "This is a real chance for us to get some points on the board and we intend on taking the opportunity."