On Saturday Morning the Newry Flyers U14 team took to the floor for the first game of the 09 Season.
Sporting a new look with kits sponsored by McQuillan Fruit & Veg, Cullyhanna, the boys looked every bit like a top team from the moment they started to warm up on the floor.
After finishing on a high last year, Coach Peter Clarke hoped that the boys could keep their form up against old rivals Queens.
They had been training hard in the off season and for most players this would be their second season playing give them some valuable experience.
The Game started slowly as both teams tried to find their feet. From the start it was Newry who looked the more comfortable.
The Queens defense was quite scrappy and they were giving away a lot of fouls. Newry used this to their advantage push the defense back. Captain Aaron Miller opening the scoring from the free throw line after one of his trademark drives on the basket. Newcomer Jo McShane showed he should a force for the team this season by also getting himself on the score-sheet and Shay McMillan showed he was hungry for points this season by putting in his first basket for the team as well.
Newry finished up at the end of the first quarter 11 points to queens 8.
Due to the passer ell rule in Junior basketball it was all change for the team to play in the second quarter.
It was the partnership of point guard Kamill McCabe and Conor Yendall who made the biggest impact.
Kamill controlled the game from the top of the key and Conor put the queens defense under pressure by fighting under the basket for the all important offensive rebounds.
Newry was still up going into the half 19-16.
It was in the second half of the game that Newry were really able to take charge.
With the Queens team getting into foul trouble there wasn't much they could do to stop the Newry offense.
Eoin McStay showed that he is fighting for a place in the starting five by putting on a masterclass in rebounding on the defensive end of the floor while also scoring at his own end.
Aaron Miller was able to guide the team from the top of the quay pulling of some excellent passing plays and also punished the Queens defense for any lapses with strong drives to the basket.
He had the play of the game, swatting a queens shot out of the air, following up by recovering the ball and going coast to coast to score and excellent layup with 3 queens players biting at his heels.
This offensive push extended Newry's lead to 5 points.
In the forth quarter it was all about defense.
The younger players on team, including Lloyd Clarke and Ross McQuillan, showed their speed off the ball by holding back much larger queens players and stealing the ball whenever they showed it to them.
Both Conor Yendall and Michael Clarke got involved, frustrating the queens team with blocked shots and tough defense under the basket. As the team worked so tightly together, there were no holes for their opponents to get through, and when a queens shot did go up it was always a Newry player getting the boards. All this meant that Queens didn't make a single basket for the entire forth quarter. A feat to the proud off for the Newry players.
The Game finished 37-24 to Newry.
Coach Clarke said after the game, "This was an excellent team performance. Strong defense and 7 players on the score-sheet show that we have plenty of boys fighting to get into the top spots. We have to work now to keep this energy up to get ourselves in a good position for the season."
Players & scorers were
Aaron Miller 13 pts
Conor Yendall 10 pts
Kamill McCabe 4 pts
Eoin McStay 3 pts
Jo McShane 3 pts
Ross McQuillan 2 pts
Shay McMillan 2 pts
Lloyd Clarke
Gareth McMillan
Matthew Fegan
Michael Clarke
Joseph Hanna
