Newry Basketball Club

Newry 61 – 57 Kilkeel

Newry Flyers senior men’s team continued their winning ways in 2011 with a hard fought victory over local rivals Kilkeel Knights.  Having lost narrowly earlier in the season in Kilkeel, Newry were looking for revenge in the return fixture.

Newry opened the game brightly with Paul Crawley and Peter Clarke providing the scoring that saw Newry take an 11 – 6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Kilkeel fought back strongly, but some good scoring from Nigel Murphy and Alun Gorman meant that Kilkeel took a slender 1 point lead in to half time.

Coach Paul Crawley’s half time talk obviously did the trick and again Newry came on strongly in the thrid quarter with Scott Rafferty and Rory O’Keeffe helping give newry a 41 – 38 lead going in to the last.

The final quarter was tense and hard fought with both teams taking the lead several times.  JR Cumei was outstanding for Newry with his strong offensive game and with Sean Brady and Niall Byrne setting up the plays, Newry took a 4 point lead in to the last couple of minutes.  Kilkeel narrowed it to 2 points with under 30 seconds left, but Cumei iced the game with 2 late free throws to see Newry seal a well earned 4 point victory.

Team and Scorers:  Nigel Murphy 14, Paul Crawley 12, JR Cumei 11,  Alun Gorman 10, Scott Rafferty 6, Peter Clarke 6, Rory O’Keeffe 2, Sean Brady, Niall Buyrne