Local basketball stars to represent Ireland

TWO young Northside men will travel to Macedonia this week to represent their country in basketball. 

Brian Ashton and Matt Treacy are part of the Ireland squad taking part in the FIBA Under 18 Men’s European ‘B’ Championships which start on July 29.

The duo recently held a fundraising table quiz at the Tolka Rovers club to raise funds for their trip. They both played for the Glasnevin-based club since they were around five.

Brian and Matt have more often than not been on the same team. Both played for the successful St Aidan’s CBS side who won this year’s Subway U-19A All-Ireland Schools’ Cup Final where they combined for a total of 48 points.

They have also played for county and province, while Brian was up for previous international selection at a younger age but had to pull out due to illness. This will be the first time for both of them to play basketball at the highest level in Ireland. 

The process for selection began months ago with hundreds at the initial trial until a shortlist of 24 was announced. Matt was surprised with some of the talent that didn’t survive the cut.

“It was mad to see the very first cut because some very talented players, even from down the country, get cut at such an early stage,” he said.

“It shows how competitive the places for the team are and how everyone is fighting for spots all the time.”

As the weeks went on there were cuts of threes and fours and finally the two were named in the final panel of 12.

Ireland have been drawn in Group A with hosts Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus and Poland and Matt is optimistic about their chances. 

“We got a good draw,” he said. “We’ve drawn Cyprus who played in the ‘C’ Division last year and we got the home team Macedonia, which should be two very competitive games.”

Before the tournament, the squad travelled to Scotland and Portugal for invitational competitions as warm-ups for the main event.

Each player in the squad had to raise funds for their own trip and the boys’ table quiz went a long way towards reaching their goals. They couldn’t have been happier with how the night panned out.

Brian said: “The support was great, especially for all the spot prizes. There were around 20 spot prizes from all the local businesses who wanted to help out.”

Matt added that it was great to see so many from the club at the quiz. 

“It meant so much to us to see everyone support us,” he said. 

REPORT: Brein McGinn