Kildare club players help propel Ireland to medals at FIBA Masters Open

Ireland enjoyed huge success at the inaugural FIBA Masters Open in Greece with a number of Kildare club competitors playing their part in various medal wins.

While the Ireland F40 team were crowned champions in their division, the National M45, F45 and F50 squads all scooped silver, with the Ireland M50 and M60 panels finishing up in fourth place.

Both Inarts Vitols of BC Leixlip and Kildare Gilders player, Morgan O’Sullivan featured for the Ireland M45 team that was very narrowly denied gold by Argentinian opponents, Trede, while Pam Grogan of Naas Serpents played her part in the F50 side’s runners-up finish, with clubmate, John Clancy a part of the National M60 panel.

Ireland enjoyed a very impressive run in the M45 group stages, finishing joint top, level on points with Trede, in a campaign they opened with an 80-63 triumph over DSA Lawyers of Athens.

A blistering start laid the foundations for that win as Ireland opened up a 16-point lead by the close of the first quarter and effectively maintained that advantage thanks in no small measure to Daniel Deboss and Kieran Quinn who totalled 33 points between them, while Vitols and O’Sullivan combined for a further eight.

Next up for Darren O’Neill’s squad was the challenge of Trede, and, despite a solid opening quarter, by the end of which they led by three, Ireland finished second best over the next three periods, losing out 59-51.

They did, however, bounce back quickly against Greek Titans, against whom they finished with 21 points to spare (67-46) before edging Australia Masters 59-52 and then putting another of the home teams, Hoopers to the sword 90-34, Vitols and O’Sullivan picking up 10 points between them, as Ireland finished with four players in double digits, including Neil Maguire on a game-high 16.

That impressive run, set Ireland up for a thrilling gold-medal clash with Trede, whom they trailed by four at the close of the first quarter.

But a blistering second period saw Ireland overtake into a seven-point advantage (33-26) by the half-time recess.

Trede steadied the ship with a solid third-quarter display in which they recouped a point before outgunning Ireland by eight in the fourth for a nailbiting 60-58 success, the South Americans stringing together seven unanswered points over the closing minute.

While disappointed at missing out on gold, Kildare Gliders man, O’Sullivan revelled in the experience of competing on the international stage for his country, telling The Kildare Nationalist “What an amazing trip. One of the best I've ever had in my life.

“The team itself, I felt, improved with every single game and our coach got to figure out how our team could work as a unit.

“In the first game we had a very good win and then in the second game we lost, but after that we had another three wins before the final.

“I, myself, felt that I was getting better every single game and I think the longer we went, we kept improving and that was great to see.

“It was a massive disappointment with the end result in the final. To be up by four or five with 80 seconds left and then to go and lose it.

“But Argentina never went away. They just kept staying too close for comfort. They were just a very good side and they hit big clutch shots when they had to. They hung in there and pipped us in the end.

“But we are actually the first [Ireland] masters male team to medal at a tournament, so that has to be respected and that has to be up there and recognized as a huge achievement.

“We had a couple of injuries as well and we still came through it all to win a silver medal, so we have to be happy with that,” he said.

In the F50 class, Ireland enjoyed a clean sweep of three wins in Group A, starting with a convincing 51-29 victory over Team Italy.

In their second pool game against Gobi Sky of Mongolia, Naas Serpents player, Pam Grogan served up nine points, with Jennifer Winders top scoring on 17, as Ireland ran out 63-39 winners.

And, while they faced a more severe test in their third outing against Australia Masters, a big defensive display helped propel them to a 41-30 victory that saw them move directly through to the semi-finals where they took on Italia Golden Players.

In that match, big runs over the second and third quarter proved very effective in helping see them emerge 55-48 winners for a place in the decider where they faced off against Hungarian Angels.

Ireland, however, struggled to get to grips with a strong Hungarian Angels defence that confined them to single digits in every quarter of the final, as they chalked up a 44-31 win, helped largely by the 31-point contribution of Réka Padányi, Gabriella Szilágyi and Timea Budanovics.

Grogan, while disappointed at missing out on gold, was delighted to see her side finish among the medals, insisting “You have to walk away with your head held high, because, at the end of the day, winning a silver medal is an amazing achievement.

Regarding the experience of representing her country in Greece, Grogan said “It's a real feel-good factor when you're out there, because everyone just meets up and supports each other when we can.

“Our team in particular, were very close. We really bonded and you felt like you belonged no matter how many minutes you got. You felt everyone deserves to be there and I feel there's a core group of women there who can definitely build on the success we had for next year,” she insisted.

In the M60 division, Ireland finished up third in their group, leading to a third/fourth place play-off clash with Italia Golden Players in which they were beaten 63-45.

Another Naas Serpents player, John Clancy figured strongly for Ireland in that impressive run, as he, along with Anthony Dunne and Mike Murray, finished on double figures in their 63-43 victory over Puerto Rico in their tournament opener.

That was followed by a narrow 50-48 triumph over Italia Golden Players, Clancy chalking up seven points in that thriller, before the team continued on to ship defeats at the hands of Samex Mexico of of the USA (52-45), Australia Masters Green (51-36) and Australia Masters Gold (39-36).

In the battle for bronze against Italia, Clancy emerged Ireland’s top scorer on 12 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc, but even that contribution was not enough to see them prevail and reach the podium.