Mayo basketball legends star for Ireland in European Championships

TWO legendary figures in Mayo basketball are wearing the green of Ireland at the FIMBA European Championship this week. Trinie Naylor Kennedy and Anthony McHale are striding the boards in the Pesaro region of Italy where 165 male and female teams from around the world have gathered to compete in seven different age categories from O45 to O65.

Naylor Kennedy from Ballina Pacers is captaining Ireland’s O60 Women’s team and leading the girls in green very impressively, while McHale is shooting the lights out for the Men’s O65 squad.

Naylor Kennedy and her squad were first in action on Saturday when they took on the home side, Italy, in a storming encounter in front of a partisan crowd in Tavullia and emerged victorious on a 38-33 scoreline. This was a thriller from start to finish and Ireland were deserving winners in the end.

They took on Germany in Celletta on Sunday and were on the wrong side of a 40-35 scoreline despite a valiant effort. However, that didn’t deter them women in green and they bounced back to comprehensively defeat Hungary 43-17 yesterday (Tuesday).

In the group phase of the Men’s O65 competition McHale is playing impressively and leading the offence with great intelligence. Ireland began with a 35-55 defeat at the hands of Germany in Pala Dionigi on Saturday. They didn’t let this worry them however and tore into action impressively against Italy on Sunday when a comprehensive 52-25 victory was claimed. They followed that up earlier today with a hard-earned 39-34 win over a very competitive Italia Azzurra side who had some excellent players in their ranks. McHale came into his own in this one, ending as the game’s top scorer with 16 points.

Ireland have seven teams competing over the ten-day championships, which is the largest contingent of players the Basketball Ireland Masters have ever sent to the competition since its inception.

The round of 16 matches begin tomorrow, Thursday, with both Mayo stars hoping to lead Ireland to glory on two fronts.