Ireland claimed the first win of their FIBA EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifiers campaign, when defeating Luxembourg by 91-85 at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.
The hosts showed signs of adapting to the new coaching of Michael Bree with an unrelenting pressure game victory over Luxembourg as they looked to breath some life into what has been a disappointing campaign so far.
Ireland started the with a notably sharper edge than in the lacklustre defeat by Azerbaijan last Friday and they took a seven-point lead in the opening quarter before a flurry of scores from Luxembourg's Clancy Rugg handed the visitors a 23-22 lead at the short break that was unreflective of the game.
The hosts again injected pace into the early stages of quarter two, leading again by seven but Luxembourg pegged them back although not quite enough to prevent Ireland leading at half-time by 39-35, helped in no small part by Neal Quinn’s 11 points.
Ireland, though, were still searching for fluency, an aspect which had eluded them in their first three group games which had all been defeats. The third quarter offered signs of a switch being flicked as they took a 16-point lead largely built on five three-pointers in the first five minutes after the restart, three from Ryan Leonard and two from Matt Zona.
Again though, the momentum threatened to leak away and Luxembourg’s calm resilience, driven largely by Rugg, reeled them back into contention entering the final quarter with them trailing 65-56.
The visitors kept chipping away and brought the deficit back to five. A match-turning play was needed for Ireland and it came from the hands of captain Sean Flood who scored a three-pointer with 3:56 left on the clock, putting Ireland back in a double-figures lead: 82-72.
From there on it was a matter of seeing out the match but with enough purpose and intent to ensure the momentum never flagged as the Irish pushed on to their first success of the campaign and their first win under their new coach.
It offered the chink of light they so badly needed, not just in the victory but almost as importantly, in the performance.
Ireland’s top scorer was Neal Quinn on 22, followed by Ryan Leonard on 21, Matt Zona on 18 and Sean Flood on 16.
Speaking afterwards coach Michael Bree admitted that he was relieved to see things click for his side out on the court after a tough start to qualifying.
He said: "They've been a short period of time together, but they've been trying to do what we're trying to get them to execute on the floor as a group. They came together tonight, it was just fantastic.
"[The players] have pride and they fight and it's part of who we are. When it's competition on the table, we go for it. So irrespective of whether they responded to me or not, these guys have a lot of pride in themselves and they love representing their country. So that was the biggest thing for them.
"I've showed video, diagrams, everything. We have the theory sessions, but it's one thing to speak it and another thing to actually see it be displayed on the court. We have a great example of what we're trying to do here tonight."
