Claire Melia set to make history in Eurocup Women final

“It’s hard play and, especially with the travel as well, you feel it on your body. Anywhere we go, we usually have to fly to Madrid or Barcelona first. Around the north of Spain, it's a bus journey. The longest we had was 11 hours each way.” 

Melia, from Monasterevin, hits the pinnacle of a history making season on Wednesday night. She will become the first Irish woman to ever play a major European basketball final when her Baxi Ferrol side takes on Villeneuve d’Ascq in the first leg of the Eurocup Women final.

The occasion has taken over the small town of Ferrol in Galicia, which hasn’t known such success.

“It’s crazy. We were going into training the other day and there were queues out the door waiting for tickets. It was like years ago outside Ticketmaster queuing for concert tickets,” said Melia.

“The support is great. People are sharing stuff on social media and even walking down the street, people are stopping to chat. Obviously it’s in Spanish so I have to try and figure out what they’re saying but it’s great.” 

Getting to this decider, the equivalent of the Europa League, has been a true Cinderella run. Melia didn’t even realise the team was playing Eurocup until after she arrived in August. Since then, Baxi Ferrol has gone through qualifiers, a regular season, and four two-legged knockout rounds to get to this decider.

Their semi-final win over Asvel from Lyon was a physical one. After a big win at home in the first leg, where Melia was the star, the return game was a battering one. Melia got the brunt of the physical treatment, with her taking a cut above her eye in the second half.

“I didn’t even know I was bleeding. One of the girls was shooting the ball and, as she was taking the shot, she went ‘she’s bleeding’ and I was asking ‘who’s bleeding?’ I hadn’t even noticed it,” she said.

“They are a good team. None of us expected to win the first leg by 31 points, we were just hoping to stay within a basket of them. They played a lot more physically at home.” 

After her eye-popping performance in the first leg of the semi-final, Melia was expecting more physicality from Asvel in that second leg but even she was a touch surprised by it.

“I had an idea that, with their being so much space the way they play, that teams have to double-team me. I told the girls to be ready for shots on the outside. I knew that if I took one dribble, they’d collapse on top of me and create an opportunity to kick it out,” she said.

“Part of their approach was to tire me out and just hit me. Sometimes it didn’t feel like basketball, they were hitting off me to try and wear me out.” 

The Monasterevin woman is no stranger to adversity in the sport. After an unhappy experience in the US playing at the college level, she returned home during the tail end of the pandemic.

Tragedy struck her hard that autumn, as her mother Shirley died shortly before her season with Glanmire was due to start. Basketball helped Melia deal with her grief.

“It was only a few weeks before the season was due to start. It was extremely hard, not just for me but for my family. There were days I didn’t want to play basketball. Having the likes of [teammates] Áine McKenna and Casey Grace, and Casey’s partner Dora, as well as Mark Scannell as coach, it was the best place for me to be,” said Melia.

“After winning the cup final, Áine suggested going to the grave on the way back down to Cork. My family, my aunties, my cousins, brought candles all the way up to the grave. That will always stick in my head.” 

The main wave of travelling support for Melia this week will be for the second leg in Lille. Ferrol is not the easiest place to get to but she’ll still have around a dozen friends and family in the stands.

“It’s a nice group to have, including my daddy, brothers and sisters, auntie and uncle. Hilary [her boyfriend] is coming as well,” she said.

There was an unexpected rest for Melia’s side ahead of this final. She was speaking to me after a league game midweek last week but her side managed to get a full week’s break in the lead-up to the final.

Baxi Ferrol weren’t involved in the Copa de la Reina, the Spanish Cup which took place last weekend. That would have involved a potentially gruelling slate of three games in three days.

“From the games last Saturday and Wednesday, the rest will do us well. In a way, it’s good that we didn’t make it into the Copa because it would have been a lot on our bodies,” Melia is well aware that Wednesday’s opponent, which won this competition in 2015 as well as the French championship last year, will provide a big challenge.

“This French team we’re going up against is physically tough. We need every bit of strength for that. They have a good young shooter and their post player looks really strong.” 

There will be a touch of poignancy to the moment for Melia, knowing how much it would have meant to her mother.

“It is tough going out, even with the semi-final, and not having her there. Her mother passed away the year before her too. They were both a big part of my life,” said Melia.

“Going out and playing, people think you should be happy automatically but it can be tough knowing she’s not up there in the stands but I know she’s around.” 

Beyond Wednesday, there’s a great deal of talk about where Melia might land next year. The Monastarevin woman is on the radar of some of the top clubs in Europe following her performances this season.

“I haven’t thought about it at all. Right now it’s about getting to the end of April and seeing what way the playoffs in the Spanish league are. I’ll be glad to get home for a while, especially to see my niece and nephew,” she said.

Still, Melia is hopeful that her experience in Spain will encourage more Irish players to consider the professional route.

“It’s good that people can see they can go play professionally in Europe. Everyone has their own journey, they don’t have to do four years of college in America, they just have to find what’s best for them.”