Basketball - 10th place finish for Ireland U16 women at FIBA U16 European Championships

Ireland Under 16 women finished the 2017 FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship in 10th place this afternoon after they lost out to Israel 54-66 in the 9-10th classification game in Skopje.

In what has been a rollercoaster of a ride for the squad, a third quarter run by Israel saw Ireland on the back foot going into the last and the mountain was just too much to climb for them as Israel kept their cool to hold out and win. A superb display from Katie Walshe saw her bag 21 points in the game, continuing on her impressive form in the tournament, but Israel’s Lior Garzon and Daniel Karsh – who finished on 20 and 14 points respectively – had just too much fire power for the Irish.

Speaking afterwards Head Coach Andy Gill said: “We set ourselves some goals when we began the programme and we’ve definitely achieved higher than we thought. To finish in the top 10 and maintain our seeding we’ve over-achieved and the girls have performed well.

“We’ve played 31 games in this programme, to finish 10th and to be fighting for a ninth place finish right up until the very end – they’ve done a very good job.”