Irish finish sixth at European Wheelchair Basketball Championships
IRISH FINISH SIX AT EUROPEAN WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
National Basketball Arena, Tallaght
Friday Sept 28th 2007
Ireland’s senior men finished sixth overall in the European Wheelchair Championships on Friday after suffering a 64-44 defeat to Serbia at the National Basketball Arena.
Alain Tremblay’s charges were trailing by just three points at the end of the first quarter but Serbia dominated the next period to leave the visitor’s with a 12 point advantage at the interval. (28-16)
Mark Barry and Ireland’s tournament top scorer Paul Gallagher were once again providing Ireland’s ammunition in the early stages while Alexsander Jovanovic was causing havoc for Serbia.
Ireland started the third quarter brightly with Barry, Patrick O’Neill and Barry Cooke in particular sparkling form but they were unable to prevent the powerful Serbia side from extending their lead to 13 points.
Serbia pulled away from the ‘boys in green’ in the final quarter to record a 20-point win and claim a final finish of fifth place.
Jovanovic was instrumental in their win with Sabid Karupovic also making a huge contribution in their 20-point success.
“It’s disappointing to finish off with a loss but overall we are happy with our displays against some of the heavyweights of European basketball,” said Irish captain Mark Rohan.
“The team showed tremendous spirit and it was great to have such strong backing from the Irish supporters over the past five days.
”We can take a lot from the past week and playing against the likes of Lithuania and Serbia will stand to us in the years ahead. Our goal was to be involved in the latter stages but overall we are quite satisfied with our performances.”
Top Scorers
Ireland
Mark Barry 16
Barry Cooke 10
Paul Gallagher 8
Serbia
Alexsander Jovanovic 27
Sabid Karupovic 16
Zeljko Cirkovic 10
For further information:
Mairéad Farquharson - Irish Wheelchair Association – Sport
Email: mairead.farquharson@iwa.ie
Tel: 01 818 6452 Mobile: 087 280 1181