Ireland 83-75 Cyprus
Ireland showed their resilience with a strong over-time performance to defeat Cyprus in their FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers game at the National Basketball Arena.
It was their second win of the campaign and leaves them third in Group A with a 2-2 record and still in contention to advance to the next stage of qualification, going into their games in June and July against Austria and Switzerland, who both have 3-1 records.
Ireland powered home in over-time, responding to the disappointment of conceding a Cypriot leveller with two seconds remaining in the final quarter, which made it 64-64.
Roy Downey hit eight points in over-time, including two three point jump shots. The C&S Neptune player finished on 16 points, to go with his two rebounds and five assists in his second senior international.
It was a fine all-round performance by Ireland - Jordan Blount finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists, John Carroll had 17 points, 11 rebounds and two assists and Taiwo Badmus contributed 14 points, 12 rebounds and two assists.
It was an even opening quarter, Badmus got Ireland's first points, a three point jump shot in the fourth minute to put them 3-2 up. Carroll had a strong start, picking up six points in the first quarter.
A nice three point jump shot in the seventh minute from Sean Flood made it 10-10, it would be 15 apiece at the end of the quarter.
The start of the second quarter mirrored the first, however Adrian O’Sullivan’s three with a little over three minutes to go gave Ireland a 28-26 advantage - it was the start of a 13-point scoring run.
Flood slotted home his second from the three-point line 30 seconds later, it was followed by lay-ups from Blount and Carroll. The half was finished off nicely by Downey’s three point jump shot in the dying seconds and Ireland led 38-26.
A couple of John Carroll free throws opened up Ireland’s account in the third quarter, moments later Blount’s three saw Mark Keenan’s side establish a 17-point lead, 43-26.
The Cypriots responded with five points of their own, a long range three from Kyprianos Ioannis Maragkos made it 43-31 and prompted a timeout call by Ireland.
The momentum was with the Cypriots, back-to-back three point jump shots by Iakovos Panteli reduced the deficit to 48-39 with three minutes to go. They continued to eat away at Ireland’s lead, a Stefanos Iliadis lay-up and three Filippos Vasileios Tigkas free throws saw Cyprus trail 48-47.
The Cypriots continued where they left off, a pair of Iliadis layup’s saw them go in front, he also drew a foul for the second and Cyprus led 52-48 with less than a minute gone in the fourth quarter.
Blount stemmed the tide with a lay-up in the fourth minute, Ireland were 54-50 down. Captain Panteli notched up his third three point jump shot of the second half to extend the Cypriots advantage to 57-50 at the midway point of the fourth quarter.
An Irish timeout was followed by a three from Carroll and back-to-back threes from Keelan Cairns to put Ireland back in front, 59-57. Badmus had an opportunity to stretch the lead shortly afterwards, but missed his two free throw attempts.
A five-point run by Nikos Stylianou put Cyprus back in front, 60-59, with 1’56 to go. But Ireland reclaimed the lead when Downey was fouled on the three-point line, he converted two of his three attempts to make it 63-62.
With 6.6 seconds to go Badmus downed one of his two free throws and it was 64-62 to Ireland. But with two seconds remaining Zayd Muosa’s turn around jump shot brought it level, at 64-64. Ireland still had one final play, but they couldn’t make it count and the game went to over-time.
Ireland began over-time brilliantly, their shooting from the three point line exemplary, Blount started it off to put Ireland 68-64 up. Further threes came from Flood and two from Downey, to help Ireland run out 83-75 winners.
Head coach Mark Keenan said: "Really elated, the guys were fantastic. We did our best nearly to let it slip there in the third quarter, but look the guys never gave up, then we got our rhythm going again, then a great start to over-time.
"So yeah, the runs of the game were flipping - we got our good run, then they got theirs and lucky enough we held on at the end of regulation to get into overtime, and then yeah just delighted with how we started over-time and took off."
