All-Stars host the champs
BASKETBALL:
ONE of the biggest games of the season for EJ Sligo All-Stars is this Saturday’s hosting of University of Galway Maree (Mercy College gym, 7.30pm).
Not only are University of Galway Maree leading the standings in the Basketball Ireland InsureMyVan.ie Men’s Super League, they recently won the InsureMyHouse.ie Pat Duffy National Cup for the first time. EJ Sligo All-Stars head into this mega fixture hoping to bounce back from their away loss to Bright St Vincent’s, 80-70, last Saturday.
The home side, who were semi-finalists in this season’s InsureMyHouse.ie Pat Duffy Men’s National Cup, were inspired by the scoring power of Donovan Fields and Giorgi Tvalabeishvili, scorers of 26 and 24 points respectively.
The top scorers for EJ Sligo AllStars were Christian Williams (20 points), Tom Child (19 points) and Oisin O’Reilly (16 points).
Bright St Vincent’s led at the end of the opening quarter, 24-19, and had extended this lead to nine points by half-time, 44-35.
But EJ Sligo All-Stars controlled much of the third quarter, outscoring the hosts 25-17 to be just a point down, 61-60, going into the fourth and final quarter. In was during this period that Bright St Vincent’s found their mojo again to win by 10 points. This was the third time that EJ Sligo All-Stars have been beaten by the Dublin club in the 2022-23 season, having lost to them at the Mercy College gym in a Men’s Super League fixture and then away in the InsureMyHouse.ie Pat Duffy Men’s National Cup – both of these defeats taking place last November.
Meanwhile, EJ Sligo AllStars’ next opponents, University of Galway Maree, have won 10 of their 13 games, with EJ Sligo AllStars now on a 6-7 record after last weekend’s reversal in Dublin.
SCORER: Christian Williams, contributed 19 points for EJ Sligo All-Stars last Saturday.
SLIGO RFC were understandably miffed that the club’s first XV fell to a 19-5 loss away to Enniscorthy last Saturday afternoon at Alcast Park. After all, Enniscorthy came into this game as the side propping up the Energia All-Ireland League Division 2B standings, with just one win from their previous 10 games.
North-west outfit Sligo, on the other hand, were heading to the south-east on the back of a confidence-boosting home win over Dungannon and were looking to build on this in order to revive their chase for a promotion play-off spot.
But strugglers Enniscorthy prevailed, scoring three tries to Sligo’s one, and they leaned on their physicality to get a vital result in their fight against relegation.
Sligo, who only had Daire Byrne’s first-half try to show for their endeavour, will wonder what might have transpired had two tries not been disallowed by the referee.
Byrne’s five-pointer – following work in the lineout by Shane O’Hehir and Eoin Ryan – gave Sligo something to work with for the second-half as they trailed 12-5 at half-time. Sligo, however, didn’t score in the second-half even when buoyed by good attacking surges from the likes of Hubert Gilvarry and Ryan Feehily. Sligo’s next fixture in Division 2B of the Energia All-Ireland League is their hosting of Dublin side
Wanderers later this
STANDINGS
P W 12 12 11 9 12 5 11 6 12 4 11 4 12 5 12 4 12 2 11 2
D 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 2 2 1
L 0 2 7 5 6 5 6 6 8 8
F A Diff BP 341 142 199 7 381 249 132 11 260 233 27 10 194 201 -7 5 254 251 3 7 202 214 -12 6 195 248 -53 3 180 272 -92 3 235 359 -124 6 190 263 -73 3