Swiss defeat ends Ireland's qualification hopes

Switzerland 85-54 Ireland

Ireland were beaten 85-54 by Group A winners Switzerland on Thursday in their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European pre-qualifiers fixture in Fribourg.

The result ends their hopes of reaching the second round of qualifying ahead of their final game against Azerbaijan in Baku on Sunday.

Ireland and Kosovo are level in Group A with 2-3 records, following Kosovo's narrow 81-79 home win over Azerbaijan, who dropped to 1-4.

Only the group winners and the best runner-up from three groups advance to the second round, with the results against the fourth-placed team in Group A removed. It means that even if Ireland finish second with victory over Azerbaijan, along with a defeat for Kosovo against Switzerland on the final matchday, it wouldn’t be enough to advance.

Ireland got the opening points of the game against the Swiss through Neal Quinn’s jump shot. Kyle Hosford, playing his first international since 2022 after coming out of retirement, landed from the three-point line to bring the game level at 8-8 with just under three minutes gone.

A Neal Quinn layup saw Ireland trail by one, 13-12, midway through the first quarter. But Switzerland finished the opening quarter strongly and would lead 30-16 by the end of it, Dylan Ducommun doing much of the damage by scoring 10 points.

Ireland began the second quarter strongly, a seven-point run through jump shots from Neal Quinn and John Carroll either side of Conor Quinn’s three, saw them trail 31-23 three and a half minutes in.

There were FIBA Basketball World Cup debut’s for James Hannigan and Sean Jenkins in this game and a basket from the Griffith College Éanna man cut the gap to eight points, Ireland trailing 33-25 with four and a half minutes to go in the