The Bish capture All-Ireland U.16A basketball title for fourth time

Date Published: {J}

St. Joseph’s College 53

Douglas Community School 31

St Joseph’s College – the Bish – completed a remarkable four-in-a-row of All-Ireland U-16 A schools’ titles on Thursday when comprehensively defeating Douglas Community School of Cork in the final in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.

The Bish claimed the title in style, defeating St Malachy’s College (Belfast) and Coláiste Eanna (Dublin) in the run-up to the decider, a game which saw Peter Cooke named as MVP thanks to an impressive 14 point display, while teammate Padraig Doran added 15 points.

St Joseph’s opened the scoring in the final with a quick three pointer from Cooke, which was followed by his Irish International teammate and point guard Mark Rohan netting a big jumper from the corner. It took Douglas two minutes to open their account when Danny O’Keeffe connected on his side’s first two points of the game.

The Galway side set the pace on the defensive end and allowed Douglas to score only 10 points while the Bish’s Cooke and Rohan combined for 16 points during the quarter to finish the quarter with a 10 poijnt lead.

In the second quarter the Bish continued their scoring rally and were led Cooke’s six point tally in the opening minutes of the second quarter. Teammate Padraig Doran added an additional four points and St Joseph’s defensive pressure proved too much for Douglas as the Cork side only managed to add three points to the board with a basket from Gary Pineada. At the other end, Liam Egan hit a big three pointer from deep followed by a lay-up from Ben Ntumba to keep the pressure on the Cork school, so leave the Bish cruising at half-time on a score of 37-13.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.