Basketball – All Ireland Schools League Qualifiers

Unfortunately, co-captains Feargal Keane (4th Year) and Jimmy Gilligan (3rd Year) and their squad came up short against a very strong, cohesive and balanced Colaiste Mhuire side in the All-Ireland semi-final held in the U.L Arena,Limerick, on Tuesday 8th January.
We were unable to produce our normal levels of consistent scoring in the game and this was critical. 17 points in the second quarter was excellent. However, 5 points in the third was below what was required at this level.

Ronin O’Halloran (3rd Year) was superb on offence scoring twenty points ably assisted by Jimmy Gilligan and Feargal Keane who scored ten points each. While the defeat was hugely disappointing for the team, it is a great achievement in only our second year at this level, to come so close to an All-Ireland final and we are very proud of them.

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The day after losing the All-Ireland semi-final we were back in action and the character of the team shone through in the reaction in the first half, leading 36-2 at the interval. Heywood to their credit responded well in the third quarter and won 21-7.

We have now qualified for the All-Ireland League Playoffs in St. Pats in Navan where the winner of the group of 4 team blitz will qualify for the All-Ireland League semi-final. Special mention must go to Murray Baker (3rd Year) and Pablo Villlarroya (4th Year) who were excellent on defence in that first half and ran the offence very well over the course of the game.

I thank our coaches Mr O’Neill, Calum Henry (Class of 2016) and Rob Somers (Class of 2017) for their preparation of the squad.