The game began fast and furious and the Thunder, who took to the court with an air of expectant ease, were soon knocked into gear by an offensively attacking and solidly defending Newry Fliers. The Fliers were hitting harder and driving faster than the Thunder remembered and it was the opening 4 points by Newry’s Terry Guo that showed Omagh they needed to bring their game, if Omagh wanted these 3 league points they were going to have to fight for them. The strong and unrelenting Newry zone defence kept Omagh away from the basket allowing Newry finished the first quarter ahead by one point.
A quick wake up call for Omagh came early in the second quarter with Omagh’s I. Maguire picking up a foul for unsportsmanlike play handing Newry’s point guard Connor Campbell two free shots and possession of the ball. From this it was clear to Omagh’s Captain Conor Mc Evoy that his team were getting rattled, at this point Conor himself had been finding it unusually difficult to find the hoop and his side took a timeout to settle their game.
It appeared that the Omagh time out had been much needed at Conor Mc Evoy returned and rained down four 3pointers in the remainder of the 7 minute quarter, giving Omagh a much needed lift. However Newry did not take this sitting down and worked hard amidst some uncertain sideline calls to score 7 points in the quarter. But Omagh’s successful outside shooting was widening the gap on the Fliers and while on the floor Newry matched Omagh play for play the outside shooting of Omagh’s Conor Mc Evoy proved too much.
While the score at the 3rd quarter gave Omagh the edge the game on the court was not over and the Newry boys fought hard and continued to force Omagh to take outside shots. Newry’s Captain Nial Byrne aided by Terry Guo proved problematic for Omagh’s defence while Newry’s David Ruddy, Sean Bannon and Nial Mc Ardle kept the inside shot opportunities for Omagh to nil.
Lucky for Omagh that Conor Mc Evoy has such as sweet outside shot as he finished the game scoring 28 of their 39 points. It will be an interesting 2010/11 season when Omagh face Newry without their shooter?
So while the game ended in defeat for the Newry side it was a stronger more aggressive and less fearful side that the supporters saw from the court side and we look forward to seeing the team develop together over the summer months into next season.
Final score was Omagh 39 Newry 27.
Fliers: Terry Guo (17 pts), Nial Byrne (Captain 4 pts). David Ruddy (4 pts), Paul Kavanagh (1 pt), Conlith Cull (1 pt), Nial Mc Ardle, Conor Campbell, Mark Hanratty, Sean Bannon, H.Lui
