Ireland’s junior men have qualified for the semi-final final stages of the European Championships after hard-fought wins over The Netherlands and home nation Portugal in the latest qualifying round in Seixal.
Having suffered defeats to England and Turkey, Ireland had it all to do to qualify, but a 77-75 victory over The Netherlands on Saturday night and an extra time 87-85 win over Portugal on Sunday was enough to secure only their second European semi-final berth.
"The players are thrilled. They have worked very hard over the past 10 months to get to this stage, and now they have the honour of being just the second team to make it through to the semi-final stage," said head coach Joey Boylan.
The team will take a month's break before they resume training for next March’s semi-final round. They must wait until November to find out who their semi-final opponents will be.
Meanwhile, the Irish under-20 Women's team start their bid for a European Championship spot with a Group E qualifying game against host nation Spain in La Coruna tomorrow evening.