Newry played host to Andersontown Tigers on Saturday morning.
Although supposedly one of the weaker teams, the earlier meeting in the season proved to be a close game and at a couple of points The tigers gave Newry quite a scare.
Tigers had also recently scored a couple of victories against some of the stronger teams in the league and Newry didn't intend to give them another scalp.
The Newry tactics for this game were simple. Build an early lead an maintain it. The team did exactly as they were told and were in control from the tipoff. Throughout the first quarter Aaron Crawley and Conor Yendall put up an impressive 19 points. This was a very strong start from the Newry team and this was matched with a tough defense, holding the Tigers to only 4 pts.
The second quarter was the same run of play, this time it was Eoin McStay who stepped up scoring 12 of his 13 points, mainly down to strong offensive rebounding and some excellent setup plays from Kamil McCabe at the point. The defence for the quarter was also magnificent. Newry kept the tigers away from the basket and forced them into outside shooting. With an unfamilier court it was very difficult for the tigers to develop a rythm and Newry held them scoreless for the quarter. Newry finished the half with a commanding lead of 33 points 4
With such an advantage going into the second half of the game, Newry were able to rotate all the players on the bench This is where the things got really interesting for the Newry team. Up to this point only 5 players had scored to make up the 33 points. But as each player got more court time they were all hungry for the basket and more got their names added to the score sheet.
Young Shay McMillan was rounding off a great game taking 6 confident points. Danial Hanratty, Mark Thornton, Jo McShane, Michael Clarke and Ross McQuillan all put 2 pts each and Matthew Fegan score from the free throw line.
With 4 minutes to go only 2 players were left to score, Gareth McMillan and Lloyd Clarke. Newry fielded a strong team of Aaron Crawley, Conor Yendall and Kamil McCabe and the three older players worked hard trying to get their younger teammates open, passing up clear opportunity to get their partners on the score sheet. It payed off with Gareth McMillan getting fouled with 2 minutes to go and making his second shot from the free throw line and then following up quickly with another basket. Finally it was left to Lloyd Clarke to score but despite the teams best efforts he couldn't get open. With 5 seconds to go Aaron Crawley got a rebound from a missed tigers shot, and Lloyd made a break past 2 tigers players to get open at the half way line. With time running out he made a long range shot from just inside the three point line to make a clean sweep of with every players putting the ball in the net. Final score was 59-19.
After the game Coach, Peter Clarke, said "Usually we would try not to let a lead get that far ahead, but every player on the court today was fighting to score. The older players showed great team spirit and made sure all their team mates got involved and got their opportunity to score. A great Team effort. "
Congratulations to Captain Aaron Crawley who major season milestone. He drilled a free throw during the 4th Quarter bringing his total for the season to 100 points. A remarkable acheivement at this level.
This win also secures the team a first place in their division.
MVPs for the game were Shay McMillan and Aaron Crawley
Scorers for the game
Aaron Miller 16 pts
Eoin McStay 13 pts
Shay McMillan 6 pts
Conor Yendall 6 pts
Gareth McMillan 3 pts
Lloyd Clarke 2 pts
Jo McShane 2 pts
Michael Clarke 2 pts
Mark Thornton 2 pts
Kamil McCabe 2 pts
Daniel Hanratty 2 pts
Ross McQuillan 2 pts
Matthew Fegan 1 pts
