The long wait for an away victory ended in Bosnia and Herzegovina and means Ireland could escape from Group A by finishing as one of the three best third-placed teams tonight.<\/p>\n
However, even if James Weldon\u2019s charges beat Israel, they may still need to rely on other games later tonight to advance.<\/p>\n
Two recent wins after four years waiting for one is still a big milestone and the relief of that 81-78 win in Zenica on Saturday was palpable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a tough week of travel and everything and they all remained so positive, the staff and the players have been incredible the last few days,\u201d Weldon said after the win.<\/p>\n
He continued, describing it as a \u201cbig step forward for the programme\u201d while still on the court in Bosnia where Hazel Finn scored 21 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think on the back of that performance, these players deserve that [the second round]. Hopefully we can pull out another performance out of the bag on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
They face Israel as campaigners continue to call for a boycott of this game over the country\u2019s military involvement in Gaza and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hazel Finn in action for Ireland against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: Basketball Ireland<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear that Basketball Ireland would prefer this game be played under a rock, even with the new significance that this game has taken on.<\/p>\n
The association was granted its wish that this \u2018home\u2019 fixture be staged in the neutral venue of Latvia today, where the three previous games against Israel have been played.<\/p>\n
And unlike other qualifiers last week, the behind-closed-doors clash will not be broadcast on the TG4 Player while pre-qualifier media was once again kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n
Reminders of the previous diplomatic storm remain on the court as Dor Saar, the player that made unfounded claims of antisemitism against Ireland in February 2024, is still playing.<\/p>\n
Their opponents have enjoyed good form as new head coach Shira Haelion \u2013 the country\u2019s first female boss \u2013 has won all her games in this competition.<\/p>\n
But Weldon\u2019s charges ran Israel close here last November, leading for the first half before missing out by seven points in overtime (93-86).<\/p>\n
They were without star forward Claire Melia that day too who again misses out. The Kildare woman corrected a Basketball Ireland statement which said she was injured last week.<\/p>\n
Although no alternative reason was given, it\u2019s assumed a certain unease remains about facing Israel given she has missed the previous three EuroBasket games.<\/p>\n
At the start of the window, Weldon said that Ireland must play this game \u201cfor the future of the sport\u201d as fines and bans remain for refusing to fulfil the fixture.<\/p>\n
While that may be more relevant given the second round is in their grasp, the controversy remains given they face a country that has been accused of genocide by a UN-appointed commission of inquiry.<\/p>\n
They will hope to put this all behind them with a win tonight.<\/p>\n
Ireland v Israel, YouTube.com\/Fiba, 4.30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long wait for an away victory ended in Bosnia and Herzegovina and means Ireland could escape from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9485,61,60,3410,43],"class_list":["post-350259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-barry-lennon","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350259","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=350259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}