Calasanctius College claim U-14 A Boys’ national title

Calasanctius College 35

Mercy Mounthawk 32

Calasanctius College, Oranmore, captured the Subway All-Ireland School’s U-14 A title last week with a thrilling win over Mercy Mounthawk from Tralee at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.

The side, coached by Richard Burke and Edgar Solsona, had breezed into the final after a crushing 71-24 win over Cork’s Douglas Community School in the semi-final, with team captain, Ben Burke, hitting 20 points, and Raniel Oguekwe (12) and Oisin Holland (10) also scoring heavily.

An all-Galway final was on the cards, as St Joseph’s College (the Bish) were in the other semi-final, but the Tralee school were too strong for the city side, running out 51-38 winners.

Twin brothers, Sean and Tim Pollman Daamen, did most of the damage for Mercy Mounthawk in the semi-final, with Tim hitting 20 points and Sean chipping in with 14, and while they did most of the scoring for Mercy Mounthawk in the final, Calasanctius College nullified all other threats from the Kerry school to take the title.

Evan O’Rourke put in a dazzling display for the Oranmore school in the final, playing a great defensive game and also chipping in with plenty of offensive assists, and fittingly it was he who sealed the win, nailing two free-throws in the final seconds to send the title West.

The Pollman Daamen twins hit 30 of their side’s 32 points in the final, but Calasanctius were able to rely on a wider spread of scorers.

The Oranmore school took the lead early on, closing the first quarter 12-8 to the good. There was nothing between the two sides throughout the second quarter though, with just three separating them at half time, with Calasanctius 21-17 ahead.

It looked like Calasanctius College had managed to secure a bit of a cushion in the third quarter, with Raniel Oguekwe and Ben Burke knocking down some good shots to see them 29-21 ahead at the buzzer, but Mercy Mounthawk were not going to go down without a fight.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.