Newry Fliers U19 played their third game and met tough opposition when they faced of against a strong team from Queens on the 7th of November.
Newry were faced with a side which they were unfamiliar with, but stepped up to the plate to meet this new challenge.
Both teams started off playing very strong defensive game and scores were quite low, struggling to break the double digit mark. Queens didn't want to let anything past and had a large number of fouls throughout the first period, and this started to frustrate the Newry players. Luckily they were able to keep their composure and some strong performances from David Ruddy, Niall McArdle, and Mark Hanratty seemed to tip the first quarter in Newry’s favour with the score ending at 8-5.
The second quarter was almost like a rerun of the first, with the same style of play and exactly the same scoreline. Newry were up at the half 16-10.
Thankfully for anyone watching the game picked up in the second half, with a lot more action on the offensive end of the court. Both teams started into some exciting fast break basketball. From the Newry side it was Niall Byrne and T Guo who lead the charge down the court. Newcomer Adam Jenkins also showed some great defense and rebounding skills under the boards.
In the end Newry's hard work payed off and as the Queens team got tired and frustrated, Newry were able to pull ahead and finish with a clear lead.
The final score was 38-28 to Newry.
Head coach Paul Crawley said after the game “I was proud of the performance against one of the favorites for the title. The boys showed a lot of fight on their home court”.
