Basketball: Ultimately, what made the difference here was Ireland's basketballers had a point to prove. And in typical Irish fashion the team progressed to next Saturday's play-off against Denmark, for a place in the elite division of European competition, the hard way.

They needed a 13-point winning margin but they went one better by making it 14. It was a nervy finish that saw the agony of failure avoided by the width of the rim.

In the final second of the game Roman Kramer had a shot to sink a brave recovery from last Wednesday's calamitous defeat to Switzerland. If his effort had been an inch closer - actually make that a centimetre - the epic performances of Pat Burke, Marty Conlon and Jay Larranaga would have been in vain.

By half-time Ireland had finally got to grips with the Slovaks thanks to three consecutive three-pointers, one from young Dubliner Conor Grace and two from Larranaga, to make it 39-35.

Then followed a third quarter that can be savoured by Irish basketball for years to come. First the NBA man Burke sank a three-pointer. It was followed in quick succession by similar feats from Larranaga, Jim Moran, Conlon and Burke again to increase the lead to 22 points.

The Slovaks responded to the Irish intensity by self-destructing offensively. The question for head coach Gerry Fitzpatrick afterwards was where did such resolve come from. He replied:

"Some place down deep. We'd said it at half-time that to have any chance the third quarter would have to be the big one because we had to go into the fourth with a decent lead. And we got that lead.

"Maybe Wednesday night in Switzerland told us something about ourselves. They outsmarted us really by playing four small guys. Tonight was important as even if we didn't win we had to show we really wanted it.

"Tonight all the leaders stepped up and we got the big games from all the people that mattered. I mean Marty Conlon, he played such a good game."

The main reason for defeat in Geneva was the curtailing of Burke's influence. The Phoenix Suns player responded with an immense display, finishing with 23 points, including some angry slam dunks. More importantly, along with Larranaga and Conlon, he spurred on the others as the lead was chipped away in the exciting fourth quarter.