Tralee Warriors win

THE St Mary’s Christmas blitz 2016 will be remembered as one of the finest in the events 47-year history with full houses every day, top class action, superb skill, tears of joy and heartache, and an ultimate feel good factor of a job well done. St Mary’s Chairman Maurice Casey could scarcely wipe the smile off his face as he described how happy he was with how the blitz went.

“We couldn’t ask for a better five days,” he said. “The basketball was top class from day one to day five I was so impressed with the standard overall, especially at national schools level. The quality of coaching that is going on is certainly paying dividends and it augurs so well for the future of basketball in the county. Teams like Currow , Scartaglin, Gneevguilla, I could name many more - they were superb.”

Casey also felt that the addition of Superleague teams like Garveys Tralee Warriors, Griffith Swords Thunder and UL Eagles gave the Premier Men competition an extra edge. “It’s fantastic to see Tralee going so well in the Super League,” he said. “They have great support and along with the other Premier Men teams they really brought some colour to the blitz.”

The Premier Men’s competition was run off on the Wednesday. Superleague powers Garveys Tralee Warriors and Griffith Swords Thunder played a thrilling semi-final with the Tralee side scraping over the line with a 43-41 victory to secure a final spot. Two from the free throw line by Alex Calvexe with 25 seconds on the clock left Thunder in the driving seat, but Trae Pemberton drilled a sublime three-pointer with 5.2 seconds on the buzzer to force overtime. Pemberton again emerged as the hero when he landed a two after a pass from Kieran Donaghy. Pemberton was fouled while shooting and he also secured the bonus point from the line to secure a two-point victory for the Warriors to the delight of the huge crowd.

Warriors Superleague experience, and the brilliance of young Ryan Leonard, proved too much for Keanes SuperValu Killorglin in the final. Tralee led by 5 at half time, 31-26, but a second half purple patch pushed the warriors 12 points ahead,48-36 with just five minutes left on the clock. Damon Jones,with a game high 18 points, and Declan Wall, kept plugging away for Killorglin but Kieran Donaghy and the imperious MVP Leonard had just too much for the SuperValu challenge and Tralee Warriors waltzed to victory on a final scoreline of 55-45.

The Senior Ladies final was contested between Cork’s finest Brunell and Fr Mathews, and it