Newry Basketball Club

Newry U14 Flyers had their first away game of the 2009 season against Ballymena Blackstone last Friday night.
Ballymena have always had a well drilled side that play with a lot of speed and physical strength and Coach Peter Clarke expected a tough and exciting game. He wasn't disappointed.
Both teams must have been feeling the chill from outside as they started slowly and very cautiously. Both defenses were very tight and it was hard for the point guards to get their men open.
From Newry's side it was Aaron Miller who stepped up and put away 4 baskets in a row to keep Newry in it. Daniel Hanratty, younger brother of U19 player Mark Hanratty, also got a basket in the opening quarter, in his first competitive game for the club. The first quarter ended quietly with a score or 10 - 9 in Newry's favour.

It was in the second quarter that the Newry team were able to seperate themselves.
This time it was Eoin McStay who was putting on his rebounding masterclass. Blackstone really had no answer for him under the basket and he was contending for every rebound and getting more than his fair share. He was able to convert 8 points, all from offensive rebounds.
On the defensive end the flyers where able to produce a solid performance and held back blackstone from scoring or rebounding their missed shots. Joe Hanna and Kamill Mccabe also stood out, getting back for the defense and making sure the opposition didn't get any easy baskets. All this work held Blackstone to 2 baskets for the quarter which ended a comfortable 22 to 13.

It was in the second half where things began to really liven up. Blackstone came out fighting and immediately started with a full court press defense. This is something that has been held back from the younger Northern Ireland leagues but was recently reintroduced to allow the players at this level to more competitive when going to all Ireland competitions. It involves the defending team marking their man over the whole court as opposed to defending within 20 feet of the basket. As soon as an ball was inbound the receiving player found themselves with a defender trying to steel the ball. This was a surprise for the Newry team, and lead to several turnovers. Also Blackstone started to the play a fast break offence. This too was a surprise and more than once the Newry defence was found wanting, In one case 4 blackstone players were able to attack the basket without opposition. Ballymena managed to cut the lead down to 3 pts.
Coach Clarke had to call a timeout to get the boys settled and make sure they new how to best these new tactics. It was a case of having to work harder and faster for the Newry team, and luckily there was a good bench to fill in as people got tired. Newry's point guards Kamill McCabe and Aaron Miller,  were able to push past the press although it was still causing problems for the players trying to get open and receive passes. On defence the players such as Gareth McMillan and Matthew Fegan were able to get back and halt the Ballymena advance. Once the Newry side got settled and controlled again after the momentary loss of composure they were able to open the game up again. Luckily the tactics served to tire the blackstone players out before the Newry side and the game ended 43 - 31.

After the game Coach Clarke said "Blackstone definately asked some questions of us tonight that we were luckily able to answer. The entire team showed great heart and we had some great individual performances from Aaron Miller and Eoin McStay, but we need to work more on recovery defence and getting all our players involved on offence. Hopefully we can get some of this in place before we come up against Omagh next week."

Newry Players & Scorers

Aaron Miller         17pts
Eoin McStay        8 pts
Kamill McCabe      8 pts
Joe Hanna            4 pts
Conor yendall        4 pts
Daniel Hanratty    2 pts
Lloyd Clarke
Mark Thornton
Gareth McMillan
Matthew Fegan
Rowan Lewis
Cathal Lewis
Shay McMillan