Division B. Ireland outlast Romania in thriller

Hazel Finn

They came so close! Home favorites Romania scared the crap out of Ireland in an epic battle that perhaps would have deserved an overtime or two. Ireland suffered some serious scary moments but prevailed in the end: 67-64 Ireland looked in control early on in the second game for both teams. The Irish team led 20-12 after ten minutes, as Romania already was fighting foul trouble , and seemed in for an easy evening. Romania brought a lot of energy to the floor, but Ireland controlled, and saw their leading scorer Sara Hickey play for the team, making her mates better as she faced heavy and sometimes hard defense by the hometeam. Nobody really was surprised that the Green Army went in the locker room at halftime leading 41-33. Yes, Romania sometimes showed impressive penetrations , but Ireland seemed in the drivers seat conserving their early lead, and finding points with Hazel Finn (177-PG-2003) (18 for the night) and Lucy Coogan (182-F-2004) (14 and 8 rebounds) who lead the team. A Miky Panait (169-PG-2005) three for 57-52 suddenly set things on fire for the Irish. Boosted by their home crowd the Romanians suddenly showed confidence and as Catalina Ion (183-F-2003) a little later copied that piece for 59-55 there seemed to be a big fire in the Irish house. Panait hit another three for 59-58 and suddenly Ireland seemed to be ready of be decapitated. Finn made a layup for the Irish after several scoreless minutes making it 61-58 but Anisia Croitoru (187-C-2003) quickly replied for the hosts.The strong pivot even hit a long range jumper for the first lead of the game for the Romanians: 61-63 with 3.10 to go. Ireland desperately looked for an answer but needed two minutes to regain the lead on a Maria Kealy layup with a little bit over a minute to go. Finn extended the lead to two splitting two free throws with less than half a minute to go but the pressure was still on for both teams. Catalina Ion split two freethrows with twelve seconds on the clock and after Finn hit both freethrows with ten seconds on the clock Ion even had a look for a possibly tying buzzerbeater but the shot was off, sending the Irish into jubilation and the quarter finals, while bitter tears were left for Romania.

Leading scorers:
Ireland: Hazel Finn 18; Lucy Coogan 14 points 8 rebounds.