Warriors suffer first defeat at home

MEN’S SUPERLEAGUE

SUPERLEAGUE leaders Templeogue ended Garveys Warriors unbeaten home record in the Tralee Sports Complex last Saturday with a hard earned, if fully deserved, success ensuring their tenth League win on the spin in the competition in a game in which they always had a measure of control, despite the admirable endeavours of Warriors who were chasing the game after a pretty bright opening quarter.

Without Kieran Donaghy and Darragh O’Hanlon, who was in the squad but was unable to participate due to a knee injury which has curtailed his involvement from an early stage in the season, Mark Bernsten was limited in terms of his rotation options, and on reflection some might feel that Warriors maybe would have won the game with a full complement of players at their disposal.

Obviously, one can only speculate in relation to this particular scenario, but, such was the quality of Templeogue’s scoring spread allied to their ability to respond whenever the home side threatened to overhaul the deficit that one felt that they had the ability to manage any particular situation which might develop. Ryan Leonard with a brace of three point scores provided Warriors with the perfect boost at the outset of proceedings, and, in a contest which maintained a good tempo throughout the opening quarter was pretty evenly contested, and, with Dusan Bogdanovic influential at both ends of the court, Warriors led (16-13) at the midway point.

A few debatable calls went against them with Templeogue capitalising from the free throw line, but, it was significant that Warriors zone defense was struggling to cope with the variety of Templeogue’s offensive strategies, both from the fringes, and along the baseline in back door situations. In this respect Lorcan Murphy and Jason Killeen were particularly effective with both netting ten points apiece to ensure that the visitors led (21-24) at the end of that first quarter with Darren O’Sullivan’s spectacular three point score from inside his own half affording Warriors a timely tonic right on the buzzer.

Templeogue stepped up a gear throughout all of the second with Neil Randolph and Mike Bonaparte converting threes, and despite another three from Ryan Leonard the Dublin side led (34-49) at the interval with Trae Pemberton who scored 42 points the previous week having registered just a single basket up until this juncture which was a reflection of the defensive qualities of Stephen James in direct opposition to him.

Certainly the magnitude of the task facing Warriors at this particular juncture was pretty daunting, and, with Dusan Bogdanovic picking up his fourth foul, which necessitated his withdrawal for a period, Templeogue held most of the aces, but it failed to kill off Warriors brave challenge. Ryan Leonard provided the impetus for the locals with some surging runs and vital scores, while Darren O’Sullivan admirable efforts were heart warming in the extreme. Sheer grit ensured that the deficit was reduced to just four points (52-56) with just over two minutes left in the quarter, but a Warriors time out, at that particular juncture seemed to unsettle their momentum.

Certainly Templeogue benefited most with Neil Randolph landing two more threes to once again open up daylight between the teams (66-52) going into the fourth and final quarter. With Trae Pemberton eventually imposing his presence on proceedings and netting twelve points during the final quarter Warriors maintained a strong challenge, but, were largely battling against the odds with their shot selection and shooting averages being well below par. Templeogue with such as Lorcan Murphy, Neil Randolph and Mike Bonaparte all coming up with some big plays and spectacular scores, kept Warriors at arms length with seven points separating the teams going down the stretch. In the end, Warriors spirited challenge fell short, and maybe it was a case of what might have been, but, on the basis of the overall exchanges with the visitors having more of a cutting edge about them in offensive situations, they were deserving winners in the overall analysis.

Coach Mark Bernsten fully agreed with that particular assessment with the absence of some key players and a sub standard level of shooting being factors in the eventual outcome. “It was a fair result. I thought they played well, we made a run at them in the second half, and they answered our run. I thought our guys played hard (but) we didn’t play smart at times, we didn’t shoot the ball very well. I thought if we played as hard as we did, and kept the ball, and kept the game in the seventies that we would be in pretty good shape, but we needed to shoot the ball better.

“I thought being at home, with our match ups, I thought a zone might be good. It wasn’t the best, they made some threes, we don’t execute the zone properly at times, and probably our man-to-man was a little better, but we got in foul trouble playing man, so it’s twenty-twenty, hindsight is always perfect. We cut it to four, called a time out, tried to get a play set up, and we failed to execute it properly. They got a steal, went on a bit of a run, and it went from four to twelve in a heartbeat so, yeah, you look back at the game, and maybe I shouldn’t have called a time out.

“We have got a couple of people missing tonight, (Kieran) Donaghy and (Darragh) O’Hanlon, so we get them back (and) we will work away. We have got a big game next week, we go on the road to Limerick on Saturday, and I think we need to win at Limerick to make up for this loss at home.”