Haines reigns as Maree take first crown
THE Pat Duffy Cup is on its way to Galway for the first time ever as Charlie Crowley’s University of Galway Maree edged a thriller 74-69 in front of a jam packed National Basketball Arena crowd.
“I’m a man with a lot of words but I am speechless tonight. It was just unbelievable,” said Crowley.
“That was the greatest sporting event I’ve ever been involved in.”
The crowd was electric on both sides. Both teams going at it hammer and tongs.”
Jarett Haines had an incredible game and scored 35 points in the game and was the real game-changer.
A disappointed DBS Éanna head coach Darren McGovern reflected: “Their zone defence in the second half caused us a lot of problems, you know you take 47 threepointers, which is probably not good enough, we needed to get in the paint.
Loss
“Mark Reynolds was a big loss, he is gone to hospital with a big broken nose, which really didn’t help the situation for us either trying to get the ball inside, but credit to Maree you know they brought the tempo, they brought the fight and they won it.”
For the neutral view on proceedings, Killester coach Brian O’Malley was delighted for his fellow Connacht men.
“This was a fabulous outcome for Maree, (Zvonomir) Cutuk and (Rodrigo) Gomez were fantastic, they stood up to the Eanna physicality and that gave Maree the platform they needed.
“Obviously, Haines was exceptional, he made some incredible shots as did John Burke.
“Eanna had their dominance at timred but Maree took control and Eanna had no answer to Haines,” said O’Malley.