Irish must lift spirits in battle for bronze

THE national men’s basketball teams will be chasing bronze medals after losses at the ESB Arena yesterday. Ireland 4 went under to Pakistan, 33-25 in overtime and got a standing ovation from the huge crowd before Ireland 3, battling it out with division seven favourites Kazakhstan, lost 49-26.

The opening clash between Ireland 4 and Pakistan 1 was a game Ireland could and should have won for they dominated for long periods, exerting total control at times before they saw victory snatched from their grasp with just seconds on the clock.

When Pakistan’s top scorer, Tauheed Aziz, laid up for two points with half a minute remaining they were deep in foul trouble.

Their two big men, brothers Noel and Kenneth Hanley, fouled out and watching proceedings from the bench, were sorely missed.

“We had victory in our grasp at that point and I have to say this was a game we deserved to win,” coach Michael Ryan recalled. “But we got ourselves into foul trouble and we lost some key players in the last couple of seconds.

“Thirty seconds to go and we were still ahead but now I knew it was going to be difficult to hang on. Pakistan were a very strong side and we were going to find it difficult to contain them.

“Noel and Kenneth were the heart and soul of this team. Our whole game revolves around them and if they had not been fouled out we would definitely have held on.”

It was a disappointing ending for Michael Ryan and his team but the coach insisted they were still on course for bronze medals.

“They are a mighty bunch,” he said. “They deserved to win but we are still there with a chance of bronze medals. If we perform against Japan the same way we played out there today then we must have a great chance of beating them.

“I know it is going to be very difficult to raise spirits after this but if we can do that and they come out and do what they did today they will beat Japan. You need that element of luck. We did not have it today and we were very unlucky not to have beaten France.”

Top scorers for Pakistan were Tauheed Aziz (19 pts) and Awais Ahraf (12 pts) while Kenneth Hanley had 14 for Ireland, his brother Noel scored 10 and William Naughton accounted for the other score.

Ireland 3, who lost out narrowly to Kuwait, one of the pre-tournament favourites, went under 26-49 to the division seven favourites, Kazakhstan, yesterday.

Top scorers for Kazakhstan were Timofey Zaitsev (31 pts) and Grigoriyu Andriyevskiy (12 pts) while for Ireland 3 Noel Rush shot 15 and Barry McGuinness had six.