Newry Basketball Club

Omagh Thunder visited Newry Fiyers U14 team for their first meeting of the season. Last year, Omagh were the team to beat and with this year was shaping up to be the same. Both teams entered the contest unbeaten and the game lived up to the expectations.

Newry opened confidently and took an early lead in the first quarter. Omagh found it hard to get any momentum going and Aaron Miller and Conor Yendall Led the charge. From the outset the game was being fought hard and both teams quickly got into team fouls in the first quarter. This early development would affect the game in the longer run. The first quarter finished 13-7.

The second quarter was a different matter. Omagh took the incentive and lead by V jankus quickly took the lead. Newry worked hard under the basket but didn't have much luck. Kamill McCabe quickly received four fouls and had to be substituted. Eoin McStay had to work hard marking the Omagh's centre Owen Kerlin.It was hard work as Newry’s Eoin Mc Stay was at least a foot smaller. It as left to Joe Mcshane to make his presence felt under the boards but Newry struggled. The quarter ended up with Newry down 4 points 19-23.

In the third quarter Newry's Aaron Miller really stepped up scoring 10 of the 14 points of the quarter. He continued to trouble the Omagh defense with strong drives and some spectacular balls skils. Omagh were forced into committing more fouls and Aaron was able to finish his shots from the free throw line. Also in this quarter young Ross McQuillan showed he was one to watch. Showing no fear the youngster took the ball coast to coast and drove straight into the omagh defence. Newry finished the 3rd Quarter up 2 points 33-31.

On the defensive end Eoin McStay and Conor Yendall had their work cut out trying to contain the large Omagh Centre and with Omagh simply lobbing the ball into big guy it took both newry players to box him out and in doing so managed to hold him back to 11 points for the game, an excellent effort.
In the end it was the earlier foul trouble that allowed Newry to pull clear at the end of the game, with 3 players on 4 fouls the were few in the omagh defence that could stop Newry team driving at the basket. The game finished 47-38 with Aaron Miller receiving MVP from both Home and Away coaches.

At the end Coach Peter Clarke said "It was a close hard fought game and a great experience for our players. We really had to ask our guys to step up today and they were able to do that. Again we have more to work on, but I'm looking forward to meeting Omagh again in the new year."

Players & Scores
Aaron Crawley    27
Conor Yendall     10
Joe McShane      4
Kamill McCabe    2
Eoin McStay       2
Daniel Hanratty   2

Lloyd Clarke
Joseph Hanna
Ross McQuillan
Rowan Lewis
Cathal Lewis
Michael Clarke