There was disappointment for Ireland in Sunday’s Eurobasket qualifier at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght as North Macedonia took the honours 88-76.
Michael Bree’s team pushed their opponents all the way at a sold-out Tallaght in this FIBA EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifiers Group A contest before going down by 12 points.
Sam Alajiki hit 26 points and had 10 rebounds in a fine all-round performance for the home side.
Ireland led for long stretches and 62-61 at the end of third quarter and trailed by just a single point with three and a half minutes of the contest to go.
However, they ran out of steam down the stretch, having lost the influential Neal Quinn and Rapolas Buivydas for the closing stages.
Ireland head coach (and Sligo Native) Michael Bree said afterwards: “Sad and a little disappointed, very encouraged at the same time.
“We played really hard, some guys had massive performances, Sam (Alajiki) was fantastic, we just couldn’t finish it at the end of the game, we ran out of bodies, big physical bodies, and that was very important for us in the gameplan that we had, just running out of bodies was a problem.”
FIBA EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifiers Results
Thursday 27th November, 2025
Luxembourg 89-77 Ireland
Sunday 30th November, 2025
Ireland 76-88 North Macedonia
FIBA EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifiers Fixtures
Friday 27th February, 2026
Ireland v Azebaijan, 1930, National Basketball Arena, Live on TG4 Player and App
Monday 2nd March, 2026
Ireland v Luxembourg, 1700, National Basketball Arena, Live on TG4
Thursday 2nd July, 2026
North Macedonia v Ireland, Venue/Time TBC.