SUBWAY All Ireland Schools Cup Finals
Under 16 A Boys
St Joseph’s Bish (Galway): 52 St Malachy’s College (Belfast): 42
ST JOSEPH’S of Galway had 10 points to spare over St Malachy’s College, Belfast, in an hotly-contested SUBWAY Under 16 A Boys Schools All Ireland Cup final this afternoon at the National Basketball Arena, with Aaron Kiernan and James Connaire the real force behind the win.
Indeed, Kiernan – who was awarded MVP of the game – was valuable on both offence and defence, bagging himself nine points in total, but setting his teammates up for other vital scores to see them home to glory in the face of a comeback from St Malachy’s College.
The Bish had the best of the opening exchanges, with Connaire netting seven points in the quarter for the Galway team to drive them into a 13-4 lead going into the second quarter. St Malachy’s began to find their feet though, and Cormac O’Rourke showed off his shooting talents to close the gap on the scoring and see just five in it at the break for half time, 22-17.
The comeback was well and truly on by the third quarter, as with six minutes to play, Conn Doherty bagged a well-taken jump shot to put just one between the sides and as the clock ticked down, Jack Summersgill landed a fantastic three-pointer to tie the game level on 24 points apiece. The Bish showed their grit though and instead of panicking in the face of such pressure, calmly slowed the game down, with Dara McNulty adding a vital basket to push them ahead once more, but the game still hung on a knife edge at the end of the third, 29-26 to The Bish.
The Galway school came out strongly once more in the fourth quarter though, and took their coach’s words on the sideline to heart as they worked every minute of the quarter to keep Malachy’s at bay. Again, Kiernan and Connaire were crucial, with McNulty tapping in some much-needed scores and James Cummins and Iarlaith O Sullivan also on hand to drive to the basket. Good displays from Cormac O’Rourke at the other end – to see him net 18 points overall for Malachy’s – were just not enough and The Bish held firm to run out 10-point winners in the end, 52-42.
ST JOSEPH’S BISH (GALWAY): Dara McNulty (4), Iarlaith O Sullivan (6), Stephen Barron, James Cummins (9), Gavin Powell, James Connaire (16), Thomas Toher, Matthew Sweeney, Aaron Kiernan (9), Brian Gaffney, James Wall, Ryan Hornet.
ST MALACHY’S COLLEGE (BELFAST): Christopher Fulton, Cormac Loughran, Conor Eastwood, Jack Summersgill (3), Ryan Scott, Conor Ryan (2), Cormac O’Rourke (18), Niall Hurson (2), Ronan O’Neill, Conor Cookes (8), Conor McDonnell, Cormac Loughran, Conn Doherty (9).
MVP: Aaron Kiernan (The Bish)
