Ireland men's basketball coach Mark Keenan hails the resolve his side showed in over-time to get over Cyprus 83-75 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.
It was 64-64 and the end of ordinary time and speaking afterwards to RTÉ Sport, Keenan was pleased with the response thereafter.
"It was important to get that first basket or two," he said.
"It was a bit of an up and down rollercoaster ride. We were lucky we put the last run together at the start of over-time to get ourselves away from them. The guys gave everything; our bench was fantastic and the guys coming off the bench made a massive contribution.
"Just delighted with the way we came out and shot the ball in over-time to put another little gap between us."
In summing up the game as a whole, Keenan added: "We had patches of playing really well and then patches of playing not so well.
"When momentum goes against you we weren't moving the ball as well, our offence wasn't smooth. When they are hitting baskets your confidence in your defence drops a little. We've a lot to work on; we played well for about 24 minutes of that game. It leaves us things to work on for the next window."
The rollercoaster nature of the Cypriot encounter was highlighted with Ireland going from 26-23 down to 43-26 up, before the latter came back to force the over-time.
Reflecting on that period, Keenan revealed: "Everything was going right. We hit a purple patch. You know from every sport that momentum can change quickly and it did. All of a sudden they were on the front foot and we were on the back foot. Nothing was going in for us. We were hanging on at bit at the end but I thought we had it at the end of ordinary time.
"We had two fouls to give and the plan was to try and stop it before he got to the basket. He got there and tied the game."
That window will present tough assignments against Austria and Switzerland, with the coach expected to have sufficient time to work with the players.
"We will get more time together for the next window because the league will be over here. A lot of the guys' leagues abroad will be over. They should get home in May. We will have a lot of weekends before that window so that will help us alright.
"We're in with a shout. We want to keep the pressure on everybody else by getting the two wins."
