Maree teams secure spots in the National Cup basketball finals

Date Published: {J}

MAREE Basketball Club is through to two National Cup finals in Tallaght on the last weekend in January following semi-final action last weekend in Cork.

The Oranmore-Maree-based club will meet Templeogue in the Under 18 men’s final – a reprise of the 2009 final won by Galway outfit, while Maree will also be looking for a third consecutive Under 20 title when they take on Killester.

In the other two semi-finals the club contested, Maree senior men, with a starting five of average age 20, bowed out to UCD Marian, while the club’s Under 18 women went all the way to the final minute before just losing out to Tralee Imperials. Maree have played in seven National Cup finals since 2007, winning five. Finals eight and nine now beckon.

Maree 91

Moycullen 61

The semi-finals kicked off on Friday night, with the all-Galway Under 20 men’s clash of 2010 and 2011 champions Maree, and 2008 title holders Moycullen, who got off to the better start, taking a 12-7 lead after five minutes, and maintaining the gap at 15-10 on the seven minute mark.

Maree Captain Colm O’Hagan, veteran of five National Cup Finals, then got his team going, upping the intensity by example, and Maree outscored Moycullen 14-1 in the last three minutes of the first quarter, to surge into a 24-16 lead, with Ken Hansberry good for 15.

From then on, the result was never in doubt. Maree big men

Hansberry and Enda Walsh ruled the rebounds, and Maree guards O’Hagan, Ciarán Harte, Pádraig Burke and Brian Kelly took control of their younger Moycullen counterparts.

At the half, the lead had more than doubled to 54-37, including 13 second-quarter points from Burke. In the third, Maree poured it on, taking the period 21-5, and they could afford to give a run to an Under 18 five, ahead of their Sunday semi-final.

It finished Maree 91 Moycullen 61. Best scorers for the losers were Dylan Costello (18), Patrick Lyons (9) and Andrew Brady (6). In the other semi-final, it was Killester 65 Tolka Rovers 54.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.