![\"CJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sports3370599.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTheir fate is still in their hands as two teams can progress from Group A, as the top team and the best second-placed side advance to the next pre-qualifying round.<\/p>\n
But this will be a concern for head coach Michael Bree, having picked a strong side with CJ Fulton returning from the Iowa Wolves and Neal Quinn back from France\u2019s top flight.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Ireland have beaten Azerbaijan recently, winning 91-67 in November 2024 in Dublin and 79-64 away in Baku last year in the previous European campaign.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, the visitors won despite losing their top scorer Wesley Van Beck (20) after he fouled out of the game following a collision with Sam Alajiki just after half-time.<\/p>\n
Alajiki finished the game heavily bandaged from the clash with the Texan-born guard \u2013 a sight that summed up this defeat in Tallaght.<\/p>\n
Captain Se\u00e1n Flood, who was Ireland\u2019s top scorer (18), hit a last-gasp two-pointer to bring this game to within a point, but there was little time left to complete the comeback.<\/p>\n
Before tip-off, Fulton\u2019s introduction was greeted with the loudest cheer, and the Belfast man showed the class that earned him his place with the Iowa Wolves in the NBA G League this season.<\/p>\n
The point guard displayed all his game intelligence in setting up 11 scores in Tallaght and registered seven points on the night.<\/p>\n
Flood got Ireland off the mark with three free throws and a three-pointer, but the opening period was much closer than Bree would have liked.<\/p>\n
They entered the second quarter just ahead at 19-18, having converted just two of nine attempted three-pointers, while the visitors hit three from six in the opening spell.<\/p>\n
It was an omen of things to come, and they ended the game converting just 30pc of attempted threes to Azerbaijan\u2019s 50pc.<\/p>\n
Ireland tried to assert themselves with three-pointers from Jordan Blount, Matt Zona and Alajiki in the first five minutes of the second period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
CJ Fulton of Ireland in action against Wesley van Beck of Azerbaijan during the Fiba EuroBasket 2029 pre-qualifier at the National Basketball Arena. Photo: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Fulton gave Ireland hope when he found Alajiki in the corner for the Dundalk man\u2019s three, however, Azerbaijan began to reel them in with Van Beck leading the way.<\/p>\n
Van Beck had scored 14 points of his tally by half-time, helping the visitors begin the second half with a 41-35 lead.<\/p>\n
Van Beck continued to power Azerbaijan forward and got two three-pointers early in the third quarter, but the game\u2019s top scorer was soon fouled out of the game.<\/p>\n
The point guard, who had amassed 20 points, got his marching orders after picking up an unsportsmanlike foul when colliding with Alajiki.<\/p>\n
The incident also forced Ireland\u2019s top scorer to leave the court for a short period, before Alajiki returned with over a minute to spare, wearing a bandage on the side of his face.<\/p>\n
Van Beck may have gone, but Ireland had other worries. They struggled to deal with the six-foot-nine Saadettin Donat and sharpshooting Kamran Mammadov (18).<\/p>\n
The hosts began the last period 59-54 behind. Alajiki tried to start the final-quarter fightback with a dunk inside the opening minute before Matt Zona\u2019s three-pointer made Ireland believe again.<\/p>\n
Flood put Ireland ahead again from a free, but captain Amil Hamzayev\u2019s three-pointer stole back the momentum.<\/p>\n
The Ireland captain brought the game to within a point with a late three and last-gasp two, but by that stage the race was run.<\/p>\n
They next face Luxembourg on Monday in Dublin, hoping for a better result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Their fate is still in their hands as two teams can progress from Group A, as the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9485,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-321244","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\/321244","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=321244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}