![\"Ireland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/cc26b116-8bd5-4cf9-afe1-60fc19eea7db.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMichael Bree’s reign began with an 89-77 away defeat to Luxembourg on Thursday and his side must improve if they are to progress by finishing top of Group A or as the best second-placed team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we were ready at the start,\u201d Bree admitted after the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean percentage-wise, those guys shot the ball fantastic, it\u2019s not consistent with who they are as individuals based on the information we knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Ben Kovac shot the lights out with 38 points in a standout performance for the hosts.<\/p>\n
However, Ireland will likely need to beat the top seeds tomorrow, if they are to advance beyond the group stages for the first time since returning to this level in 2021.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a stiff test. North Macedonia have made EuroBasket five times since they gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, while Ireland have yet to qualify.<\/p>\n
They sit 23 places above Bree\u2019s men in the world rankings and got their campaign off to a winning start with victory over Azerbaijan on Thursday, led by Andrej Jakimovski\u2019s 25 points.<\/p>\n
Ireland can find solace in how they fought back from 18 points down to lead by four at one stage on Thursday, while 23-year-old debutant Matt Zona offered glimpses of hope for the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ireland head coach Michael Bree will aim to improve against North Macedonia. Photo: Nick Elliott\/Inpho<\/p>\n
Bree said the Irish American could allow his side to be \u201cmore dynamic in offence\u201d before tip-off, and that could be seen against Luxembourg.<\/p>\n
His eight points helped take back the lead in the final quarter as the defence struggled to defend against the six-foot-eight centre.<\/p>\n
Zona has been playing with Cheshire Phoenix in Britain\u2019s SLB this season in a similar role to the one fulfilled on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coming off the bench, playing in the \u2018big\u2019 position. We play really fast, so shooting a lot of threes. It\u2019s been fun,\u201d Zona said of his time with Cheshire.<\/p>\n
The New Yorker qualifies through his maternal grandmother from Offaly, but was naturalised before he was 16 allowing Bree to play both him and the New Jersey-born Neal Quinn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to play for Ireland since I was at U-16 level but it never really worked out with me being in the States in college and all that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then I tried aggressively in August when coach Bree and assistant coach [Shane] O\u2019Meara took over and got it sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zona followed in his father\u2019s footsteps by playing college basketball and captained NCAA Division I side Notre Dame and Fordham College last season.<\/p>\n
Bree will need him and the rest of his charges at their best against North Macedonia tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, former Basketball Ireland CEO Bernard O\u2019Byrne has resigned from the board of Fiba Europe following last week\u2019s meeting in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Byrne\u2019s departure comes after he failed to secure support for his proposal to ban Israel from competition over human rights concerns in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Ireland v North Macedonia, TG4, 5.0pm tomorrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Bree’s reign began with an 89-77 away defeat to Luxembourg on Thursday and his side must improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9485,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-165504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-barry-lennon","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}