Ireland begin their FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 qualifying campaign at home to Luxembourg on Wednesday with Edel Thornton targeting a winning series.
A home double header at the National Basketball Arena kicks off Ireland’s campaign as they face Luxembourg at 5pm on Wednesday, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday evening.
Ireland are then scheduled to face Israel in Riga, Latvia on 18 November in the last of their three-match campaign.
The winners and runners up from each of the seven groups qualify for the second round of qualifiers, along with the three best-ranked third-placed teams and Thornton is confident that her side can be in the draw.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, she said: We're really positive this week, we're looking forward and we've shown in the past few campaigns that we can really put it up to some of the teams that are ranked higher than us.
"It's a winnable series, in my opinion. We will be looking to win at least one game, if not two, out of the three games.
"One win is bit better than we've done before. So if we get one, we can build momentum and try to get two and if we get two, we could try building momentum and get three.
"But I think for us to be successful, it'll be winning a game here."
Ireland have been able to name a strong squad for the series. Three players are in line for their EuroBasket debuts – Bronagh Power-Cassidy, Enya Maguire and Lorraine Scanlon, while Claire Melia is set to make her first appearance for Ireland since winning silver with BAXI Ferrol in the FIBA Euro Cup.
Thornton is pleased with the strength and depth of the squad and believes that exposure to this level of competition will further improve the level of the team.
"Having the girls available is great for us because they haven't had the chance to play any EuroBasket," she said. "They've played a couple of summer series, but having them back into the squad, it just strengthens our depth a bit.
"They're looking forward to getting going and we're looking forward to having them.
"Since we've come back into the EuroBasket level, I think we've been just trying to raise the bar all the time and trying to get higher and higher in the rankings. I think we've done that. I think we've put our best foot forward as a team, as a squad and as a program.
"We're going nowhere but up as a nation and if we as a group can leave it in a better place for the next kids coming that will be coming back from the States and these higher ranked colleges nationally, we'll be doing our best."
While all of the focus currently is on the opening game with Luxembourg, the game against Israel in Riga casts a shadow, given the recent history between the two teams.
In 2024 Ireland and Israel faced off in a 2025 Women's EuroBasket qualifier in Riga. The Irish players registered a protest beforehand by refusing to shake hands with their opponents amid anger over accusations of antisemitism.
In the build-up to that game Israeli player Dor Sa'ar was quoted as saying of the Irish team: "It's known that they are quite anti-Semitic and it's no secret."
Basketball Ireland called those accusations of anti-semitism "inflammatory and wholly inaccurate", and reported the comments to FIBA Europe.
When asked if there had been any talk of a pre-match handshake with the Israeli team this time around, Thornton insisted that the issue hadn't come up among the players, as they are solely focused on their clash with Luxembourg.
"We haven't spoken about Israel," she said.
"We haven't spoken about Bosnia. We've just been focused on Luxembourg so far, we haven't spoken about it."
She added: "It's our first game as well and we do a really good job of coming in and just focusing on one match at a time. Since we've got here Sunday, it's been about ourselves and Luxembourg."
