Ireland travelled to the AOK Arena in the Netherlands to play against an Austrian side ranked 48 in the world and came away with a hard fought victory.
While Andrew Paton lead the way with 24 points and solid 4 quarters with his performance in the 4th quarter catching the eye, Micheal Castle’s 15 points and 4 assists in just 11 minutes from the bench may have proved vital, as he hit some big time shots to give Ireland a first competitive win of the season. Karl Höfer scored 30 points for the Austrian side, but only 3 of his teammates managed to reach double digits in points.
Ireland started brightly, and outgunned Austria in the 1st quarter. The starters, in particular the performances of Andrew Paton (6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists), and Benjamin McGee (4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists) were both key in getting Ireland ahead, but Michael Castle came of the bench to hit 8 points and 2 assists in just 3 minutes of action. Crucially, Castle hit back to back 3 pointers with Ireland's last two plays of the half, ensuring Ireland went into the break with a 9 point lead, rather than a lead of just 3.
The starters took the heavy load of the scoring in the 2nd quarter as the bench was just limited to 2 points from Carl Parnell. Stuart Tone began to control the Irish offence (4 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists), with Neil Kelleher (6 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists), and Malcom Bradley (5 points, 3 rebounds) to the fore, to ensure Ireland held off the first Austria counter surge of the game and extend their lead to 11 points at the half.
Austria fought back again in the 3rd quarter, at one stage reducing the deficit to 3 points, but Ireland showed tremendous grit and determination to stem the tide and launch a counter attack of their own, pushing the lead back out to 9 points. Paton (6 points and 2 rebounds) and Bradley (4 points and 2 assists) lead the way, and there were some key turning points in the game. With the lead down to just 3 points, Paul Klinger went to the line for two with 2:25 left on the clock, throwing up two bricks. Two minutes later, Paton went to the line and showed him how it was doing, nailing both free throws to extend Ireland's lead to 7. In the last 6 seconds in the quarter, Malcom Bradley showed the fight that got Ireland over the line. First, as Erich Forsthuber tried to dunk the ball home, Bradley blocked his shot, with Paton recovering the ball. Ireland immediately went down the court, and just before the buzzer, Bradley showed Forsthuber how its done with an emphatic dunk to extend Ireland's lead to 9.
Austria again tried to fight back in the 4th, but Ireland weren’t going to be denied. Paton hit 10 points in the quarter, adding 3 rebounds and an assist to his totals. Thomas Stanton (4 points) and Damien O’Hagan (5 points, 1 rebound) provided some much needed impact from the bench as Ireland asserted their control on proceedings.
Andrew Paton (24 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals) was probably Ireland's player of the game, but again, Castles contributions (15 points 4 assists in 11 minutes) from the bench cannot be understated.
This is a very difficult group looking at the results in other games. In all 4 matches, the favourites going into the games lost. Bosnia, Poland, Turkey and Slovakia are all teams with 100+ managers, while Luxembourg and Iceland are very organised. It will be tough but hopefully we can get another win or two in these competitive games.
Last edited by Rockets at 17/08/2026 22:33:10
Last edited by Rockets at 18/08/2026 13:22:19