Moycullen play-off hopes suffer a blow on the road

Swords Thunder 81

Moycullen 61

Moycullen’s postseason playoff hopes suffered a heavy blow on Saturday evening, as a late game scoring drought led to a road loss against second-placed Swords Thunder in Dublin.

Having been trailing by only three points late in the third, Moycullen could only manage nine points in the closing 12 minutes of play en route to an 81 to 61 defeat.

“It’s a tough one to take, it means that we now have to win all three of our remaining games and hope for some favourable results elsewhere to get into the top six,” said Moycullen captain, James Loughnane.

“We played well on defence, holding a team like Swords to 81 isn’t bad, but we just couldn’t find any rhythm on offence, and that cost us,” he added.

One bright spot from the loss to Swords Thunder was the play of Kyle Cunningham, the younger brother of Dylan, who slotted ably into his injured brother’s normal starting role. He chipped in for 13 points for Moycullen, and had a fine game overall.

Early on in the contest Moycullen looked a likely bet to get the better of Swords for the second straight time this season, having won the side’s earlier encounter in Galway.

A four-point deficit at the half on this occasion would have please Moycullen coach John Cunningham, given that his team that had not looked particularly sharp offensively in the first two quarters.

The engine never quite kicked into gear however, and while Brandon McGuire showed his usual deft touch from behind the three point line, Moycullen failed to find him frequently enough to keep in touching distance of their Dublin rivals.

A major difficulty for Moycullen was the size of Swords Thunder, who had a height advantage at every position on the court. This frustrated Moycullen all game long, and stifled their offense – Moycullen only managed 25 points in the second half.

Next up for Moycullen is a home matchup against cup champions Templeogue this Sunday in the NUI Galway Kingfisher Gym (3pm).

Moycullen will need a greater scoring output on that occasion to topple their opponents from the capital, to to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Moycullen: B McGuire (23), K Cunningham (13), J Loughnane (11), P Freeman (6), J Tummon (5), C Curran (3), C Nihill, P Lyons.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.