The Irish senior men’s national team captured the gold medal on home soil at the FIBA European Championship for Small Countries after defeating 2018 champions Malta, 97-66.
Ireland finished the tournament a perfect 4-0 and had an average winning margin of 36 points.
This is Ireland’s second gold medal at the FIBA Small Countries tournament after they won the event back in 1994.
In the final game, Ireland’s Jordan Blount just missed a triple-double, recording 17 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists.
Ireland had a balanced team throughout the tournament that was led by John Carroll (18.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.0 assist per game), Blount (14.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game) and Sean Flood (14.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game).
The All-Star five of the tournament was made up of Andorra’s Guillem Colom, Gibraltar’s Miguel Ortega, Malta’s Aaron Falzon and Ireland’s Blount and Carroll.
Colom was also named the MVP, as he averaged 21.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, while shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 40.0 percent from three-point.
The full standings:
| # | Team | P | W | L | % | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ireland | 4 | 4 | 0 | 100 | 413 | 269 | 144 | 103.2 | 67.2 | 8 |
| 2 | Andorra | 4 | 3 | 1 | 75.0 | 356 | 300 | 56 | 89 | 75 | 7 |
| 3 | Malta | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0 | 325 | 318 | 7 | 81.2 | 79.5 | 6 |
| 4 | San Marino | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25.0 | 272 | 376 | -104 | 68 | 94 | 5 |
| 5 | Gibraltar | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 282 | 385 | -103 | 70.5 | 96.2 | 4 |
