Young Mitkus leads the way

Date Published: {J}

Maree 70

Neptune 64

MAREE got back to their winning ways in Cork on Saturday night with a hard-fought win over Neptune. Maree’s record moves to 4-1 and they stay top of the National League Southern Conference. Young Tomas Mitkus was the game’s high scorer with 28 points.

This season, Maree are making a habit of winning from behind, and the Neptune Stadium game was another nailbiter for the travelling fans, with the Oranmore-Maree side behind 32-17 at one stage in the second quarter.

They could have folded and hidden behind the absence on the day of three of their big men – Linas Mitkus, Dave Hansberry and Sarunas Zvirblinskas. They never gave up though, and in clawing their way back into the game, showed commendable grit.

Both teams started in man-to-man defence, with Danny Finn Maree’s oldest starter at 22 and Ken Hansberry their youngest at 18. It was Maree’s youngest player, 16-year-old Tomas Mitkus, who was to play a pivotal role before the contest ended.

Neptune, in their own famous stadium, settled to the task the quicker, and despite six points from Maree captain Darren Callanan, the Cork men took the first quarter 18-10. The Leesiders hit two three-pointers in the period and five overall in the game, with Con Crowley hitting Maree’s sole long range score.

This was the second game in a row that Maree hit only one three, and they went 1-for-16 in that department – an aberration given their traditional strength from outside the arc.

With Callanan and Hansberry doing the hard graft of marking the Neptune bigs, it was inevitable they would rack up the fouls and, sure enough, the two fouled out and had to watch the last minutes of the game from the bench. Liam Conroy continued to give invaluable help with the boards, pulling down a game-high seven defensive rebounds.

Five points each from Finn and Conroy helped Maree shade the second period 16-15, to reduce the home team lead at the half to seven points. However, in a low-scoring game, the 33 – 26 scoreline looked comfortable for Neptune. The third period saw some trench warfare and Maree, despite their youth, stood their ground and the game settled back to basketball.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.