The Newry Fliers under 19 played their second game of the season on Saturday 24th of October away to Derry. The team was coached by Paul Crawley who had been missing from the first game.
After the long journey to Derry the U19 boys were up against a side that they were familiar with, having played them twice last season as U17’s, where it had been a strong Derry side that had beaten Newry on both occasions.
As the starting five took to the court the memories of previous defeats left a the Newry side looking nervous, and these nerves began to show as the game began. The zone defence, which has come to be a strength for the Newry side, showed signs of weakness. However the boys soon got it together and started playing some good basketball with fast breaks led by D. Ruddy, N. Byrne and T. Guo.
With the team missing a few key players due to injury the boys took some time to get settled and soon with some good defensive contribution from players A. Jenkins, M. Hanratty, S. Bannon and C. Cull the Fliers went in at halftime leading by 1 point.
The second half started the way the first half ended with Newry now getting a firm grasp of the game. The players then had a difficult task of trying to stop North Star’s rally of points and the game was tied by the 3rd quarter.
The fourth quarter proved to be a pivotal point in the match as Newry had two players fouled out of the game. Derry saw this advantage and took it by notching up key points to which Newry were unable to reply.
After a hard fought game Derry held on to win 39-36. After the game coach Paul Crawley said “The boys can take heart from this, they faced a tough opponent and held them to only 3 points, it might not have been the score line we wanted but we will learn the lessons here and aim for a positive result when Derry come to us”.
D. Ruddy 9 pts
N. Byrne 8 pts
T. Guo 8 pts
A. Jenkins 7 pts
M. Hanratty 2 pts
A. Burns 2 pts
S. Bannon
D. Brady
C. Doran
C. Fegan
C. Cull
S. Foster
