Titans are into the U18 Men’s Billy Coffey National Cup final, following a come-from-behind 74-66 win over Neptune on Sunday. Titans who trailed for the large majority of this game finished strongly, outscoring their opponents 23-8 in the final quarter to seal their passage to the final.
There was little between the sides in the opening quarter, Dylan O’Rourke grabbing 10 points as Neptune held a 23-19 lead. O’Rourke scored a game-high 30 points for the Cork outfit..
The second quarter followed a similar pattern, with Neptune extending their advantage to five points 36-31. That was stretched to 12 points midway through the third, 49-37, following a six point run, with O’Rourke grabbing four of those.
Oliver Ensko’s three had Neptune 57-44 up with two and a half minutes to go in the quarter. But Titans dragged themselves right back into it with a seven-point run to finish, Eoin Potito kickstarted it from the three point line, with Stephen Owede draining four points, as the Galway club trailed 58-51 at the end of the third.
Titans continued to bridge that gap, a layup by Nathan Gbinigie – who’d score a team-high of 23 points - two minutes into the fourth and the gap was just three, 58-55, prompting a Neptune timeout. Ensko drained a long range three, his second, straight afterwards for Neptune.
But Titans had their tails up and the gap was just a point, 65-64, with 3’50 left following layups by Potito and Owede. A three from Alban Hart put Titans into the lead with 1’50 to go, 67-66. Two Sam Herrick free throws and a nerveless corner three with 32 seconds to go settled matters in Titans favour.
Speaking afterwards Nathan Gbinigie said: “I think that we started off pretty slow, but we got better and better and by the last quarter we were fighting them trying to get the lead and we ended up getting on top of them.”
Quarter Scores:
Q1: 19-23, Q2: 12-13 Q3: 20-22, Q4: 23-8
Game Scores:
Q1: 19-23, Q2: 31-36, Q3: 58-51, Q4: 74-66
Titans BC:
Rioghan Claus (DNP), Sam Herrick (14), Eoin Potito (17), Alban Hart (8), Stephen Owede (12), Conor McDonagh (0), Ruairi Walsh (DNP), Liam Smyth (0), Valentino Edobor (0), Nathan Gbinigie (23), Benjamin Keigher (DNP).
Neptune BC:
Dylan O’Rourke (30), Sean Kelleher (DNP), Kian O’Rourke (5), Sam Walsh (DNP), Edvardas Laurynavicius (DNP), Seán Noonan (10), Wesley Delany (2), Will Carmody (0), Ciarán Fitzgerald (DNP), Victory Odinakachi (6), Oliver Ensko (13), Timothy Tamosiunas (DNP).
