Ireland’s Sam Alajiki scores a slam dunk(Image: Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Tom Maher)
It wasn’t to be for Ireland’s basketballers on Sunday, who turned in an impressive performance before falling to a late 88-76 defeat to North Macedonia at the National Arena.
Ireland ran out of steam late on, but lead for large periods against the top seeds in the group for this FIBA EuroBasket 2029 Pre-Qualifiers.
Sam Alajiki turned in a fine performance, scoring 26 points and collecting 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t to be enough as the top seeds pulled away late on.
Ireland turned in an excellent showing and even led 62-61 at the end of the third quarter, but the loss of Neal Quinn and Rapolas Buivydas hampered them badly down the stretch.
Speaking after the defeat, Ireland head coach Michael Bree said: “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.”
Next up for Ireland are back to back home games against Azerbaijan and Luxembourg in the new year, games that need to be won in order for qualification to remain a possibility.
“Absolutely (we can qualify),” said Bree, “You never know in sport, every game is different, we have an opportunity to get two wins, two competitive games, hopefully build on what we’ve been working on up to this point and if we get a win get a momentum then who knows what happens in the last four games.
“We can turn everything around – 12 points is not that big – Luxembourg and Macedonia we can win both games and who knows, in sport maybe things can work out in our favour.”