Prague – Czech women's basketball players defeated Ireland 74:57 in the qualification for the European Championship in Prague at Královka and moved to the top of Group I. On Sunday from 18:00 they will close the fight for the fifteenth participation back-to-back continental championships at the same venue against the Netherlands and they need a five-point loss to qualify for June's tournament. The WC will be hosted by Israel and Slovenia.
Advertisement'; }
Photo gallery: Qualification of women's basketball players for European Championship 2023
< p>
The best scorers for the winners today were Veronika Voráčková and Natálie Stoupalová with 16 points. Both had seven rebounds and Voráčková six assists. Edel Thornton also scored the same number of points for Ireland.
Emma Čechová from Žabin, Brno, and Dominika Paurová, who works at the high school at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida, saw their first match in the national team in front of 1,012 spectators.
The match was preceded by a minute of silence to honor the memory of the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. In the beginning, the Irish responded to baskets by Voráčková and Tereza Vyoralová, and Bridget Herlihy took a 7:4 lead with a three-pointer. Immediately, they had the lead twice more, but the home team turned the six-point streak to 16:10 and gradually increased the difference.
He helped himself in the first quarter with four triples by Gabriela Andělová, captain Renáta Březinová, Petra Holešinská and Stoupalová. Voráčková managed eight points. Herlihyová stopped the 16:0 series of favorites with a triple and reduced it to 17:32. The Irish were able to reduce the deficit to a difference of 12 points, but Stoupalová managed to take a 43:27 halftime lead with two sixes and another basket.
Just like the beginning of the match, the Czech Republic started the second half with two wins, and Voráčková equaled the highest lead in the match so far with 18 points. Březinová made it 50:30 with a three-pointer, and Voráčková broke the other one with a five-point streak.
At the beginning of the final quarter, thanks to three-pointers by Edel Thornton and Michelle Clarke, the Irish improved to 45:60. They immediately reduced the deficit to only 13 points, but thanks to two successful free throws, Eliška Hamzová scored her first points in the game.
Coach Romana Ptáčkova included all twelve players from the match roster in the game, and thanks to a win by more than ten points, the Czechs improved their position before the match against the Netherlands. Even a loss of five points can advance them to EuroBasket, with a lower victory it would be only four points.
Qualification of women's basketball players to advance to the 2023 European Championship in Prague – Group I:
Czechia – Ireland 74:57 (26:14, 43:27, 58:39)
Composition and points Czech Republic: Voráčková 16, Vyoralová 7 , Březinová 8, G. Andělová 3, Hamzová 2 – Stoupalová 16, Holešínská 10, Sklenářová 6, Effangová 3, Zeithammerová 2, Paurová 1, Čechová.
Ireland's most points: E. Thornton 16, Herlihy 15, Finn and Melia 9 each.
Fouls: 23:19. Free throws: 21/16 – 12/10. Triples: 8:9. Rebounds: 48:41.
Table:
| 1. | Czechia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 215:177 | 6 |
| 2. | The Netherlands | 3 | 2 | 1 | 207:187 | 5 |
| 3. | Ireland | 4 | 0 | 4 | 227:285 | 4 |
