Newry Basketball Club

Newry U14 Flyer’s squad travelled to Magherafelt last Saturday to take on the Titans team.
At their last meeting newry narrowly won after a stunning second half performance to come back from a 0-14 half time score to win 16-14. This time the game was more volatile but narrow margins are how this team seems to win, and this another one of those games.
Unlike the last meeting Newry started strongly. Point Guard Ross McQuillan took the ball up the floor with the support of guards, Conor Mathers & Conan Murnin. Newry worked the ball around the quay confidently and were able to make some strong attempts on the basket. Shay McMillan and Lee Murnin worked hard under the basket and Murnin had an amazing opening quarter and was able to score 6 points from offensive rebounds. Both post players also worked excellently on Defense providing help when Titans main player T. Johnston drove in on the basket. The first quarter finished even with 8 points each.

In the second quarter Newry were able to stretch out a strong lead. Newry were able to use the depth of their bench to field a strong second quarter squad while Titans seems to put their main strength in the first quarter. Again Newry worked hard under the basket and Titans could not break through their execution of the man to man help defense. Each player worked hard to keep his man away from the basket, and if he did pass them one of their teams mate would step up to stop him. This helped Newry close down the Titans offence and limit them to 4 points for the quarter. On the other side of the court Newry ran riot against a weak Titans defence. They had no competition for the height of post player Cillian Cumiskey who dominated under the basket and Guards Dean McKay and Gareth McMillan attacked the basket at will. With this the team was able to pull out an 15 point lead, but they entered the half 11 points up at 23-12.

Titans came back strong in the 3rd Quarter. Newry were still getting their shooting opportunities. They moved the ball well involving Glen McLoughlin, Conor Crawley and Luke Gachette but the ball failed to find the basket. Once setup the defence looked strong, but with the Titan’s breaking faster than Newry got back the tables were turned they were punished on the transitions. Titan’s pulled back the lead to a single point entering the  final quarter. 25-24

The final quarter was tense the whole way through. Newry resuflled the squad and played their strongest five on the floor. Despite some anxiety the players kept their nerve. Captain Gareth McMillan lead team from the top and made some stunning passes to deliver scoring chances to his team mates. He also remained steadfast when Titans tried to run a full court press against Newry, and delivered the ball up the floor over the top to allow Cumiskey to score and keep newry in the game.His performance in this quarter earned him the games MVP.  Newry were still making shooting opportunities, but the failure to convert to scores was costly. Titans were still meeting a strong Newry defence, but were making the most of the shooting opportunities and  the lead changed hands 4 times in the last quarter but Newry managed to hold on at the end and won the game by a single point. The final score was 29-28.

“We’ve had another exciting finish”, said Coach Peter Clarke after the game,” The boys showed their determination to win again today and kept their heads under pressure. It’s great to see the scoring chances being made but I think we will need to work on our conversion rate to really keep our position in the leagues top spot”

Players & Scorers
Cillian Cumiskey 11 pts
Lee Murnin 6pts
Dean McKary 6pts
Gareth McMillan 4pts © MVP
Ross McQuillan 2 pts
Conor Crawley
Luke Gachette
Conor Mathers
Shay McMillan
Conan Murnin
Glen McLoughlin