Newry Fliers want to congratulate both the U16 and U19 Abbey CBS Basketball teams who gave us all such a great day of basketball in the National Basketball Arena yesterday with two awesome finals and some great team and individual performances.
From the sliky smooth moves of Terry Guo, to the powerful leadership of Conor Campbell Newry's U19 boys fought every inch of the way to final buzzer assisted by the inside team of Nial Mc Ardle, Adrain Burns, Joe Mc Shane and (Newry Fliers Wannabe) Henry Mc Laughlin. The U19 team showed its junior Abbey squad that as long as you have "no regrets" and you "leave it all out there on the floor" (to steal a quote from Coaches Mc Clean & Crawley) regardless of the end result you can leave the court with your head held high.
Yesterday Newry Fliers coaches saw young boys become men and felt very proud. Well done to all on the Abbey U19 team!!!
The U16 Abbey team played first on the day and gave both School and Club a more celebratory ending lifting the U16C All Ireland Final Cup.
Like their senior team the U16's showed great skill and strength of character on the court. Lead by team captain Garrett Campbell the boys took control of the game from the tip and never looked back. Strong defensive play from Ross O'Hanlon prevented the Tipperary Guards from even penetrating the zone and this matched with an stelar offensive MVP performance from Aaron Miller who racked up an individual 21 points allowed the Abbey team to comfortably take home the Abbey's second ever All Ireland Winners Medal.
But none of this would have been possible without the tireless and often single handed devotion to both the teams and the sport in general of Head Coach Pauline Mc Clean. On the day assisted by Newry Fliers Head Coach Paul Crawley.
Overall yesterday's performances are a exciting sign of things to some from both the Abbey and Newry Fliers.
