St Josephs women and St Brendans men win Division 1 Cup titles
Padraig Harnett
FOR the third weekend in a row the Tralee Sports Complex played host to finals of the Kerry Airport Kerry Area Basketball Board competitions. Sunday saw six finals down for decision starting with the Division 2 Women’s Final, which St Bridget’s won with a whistle-to-whistle win over St Pauls.
DIVISION 1 WOMEN’S CUP FINAL
This was a very tight encounter with St Joseph’s just getting the better of Glenbeigh Falcons 69-65. Falcons made the better start and led 24-13 at the end of the first and were still ahead at half time 34-28. St Joseph’s got the better of their opponents in a tight third quarter and then outscored the Falcons by 9 to take the win. Rhiannon and Siofra McNulty led their side to the win while for Falcons Cliona Coffey and Ashley Campbell had big games.
DIVISION 2 WOMEN’S CUP FINAL
In the Division 2 Women’s final St Bridget’s led after all four quarters to take the Women’s Division 2 Cup. But credit to St Paul’s there was never much between the sides with two six point margins being the difference in a 55-38 point win for the St Bridget’s women’s side. From their side Aislinn O’Sullivan was named the MVP and she was ably backed up by Fiona Nelligan McGuire and Denise Lyons. Rheanne O’Shea and Mags Cronin led the St Paul’s scoring.
DIVISION 3 WOMEN’S CUP FINAL
Next up was the Division 3 Ladies Cup where Horan’s Health Stores were 52-34 winners over TK Vixens. The North Kerry sides were 26-15 up at the break but credit to the Vixens they took the third quarter by 1 point. However double scores of 16-8 in favour of Horans wrapped up the win.
DIVISION 1 MEN’S CUP FINAL
St Brendan’s from Tralee made it a great two hours in the Complex as they doubled up taking the Division 1 Cup to add to their earlier Division 2 success. In this game the star studded Tralee side hit a huge tally to defeat St Mary’s 103-77.
DIVISION 2 MEN’S CUP FINAL
The first Men’s final was the clash of St Brendan’s and Caherciveen with the Tralee side taking the win 87-76 after a high scoring encounter. The first half was a cracker with 51 points scored leaving St Brendan’s 26-25 ahead. They then put in a strong second quarter winning by 10 but Caherciveen bounced back in the third and took it 21-17. However the Tralee side with scores from Jason Quirke, Robert O’Sullivan and Simon Mitchell late on secured the win.
DIVISION 2 MEN’S SHIELD FINAL
It was also a big day for Duagh as the Men wrapped up the day with a win over St Mary’s in the Division 2 Shield Final. This followed the earlier Ladies win. St Anne’s stayed with them as long as they can but St Joesph’s were the better side on the day.
JIMMY CURRAN TOURNAMENT
This U-14 Tournament hosted by the St Brendan’s Basketball club in the Moyderwell Gym saw 12 teams in action with 21 games played.
In the Plate Final St Anne’s defeated Sligo All Stars while Maree took the Plate defeating Maree.
The big final saw St Mary’s Castleisland get the better of Tralee Imperials. The winners had defeated Vixens and Maree to reach the final.
U-12 GIRLS DIVISION 3 LEAGUE
Rathmore Ravens are top of the u12 Girls Divisíon 3 League and took their 5th win in 6 game defeating St Mary’s 27-20. For the Rathmore side Christine Moynihan hit 5 with Aoife Murphy, Rachel Rahilly, Ava Twomey and Aine O’Sullivan all hitting 4 points.
U-16 BOYS DIVISION 2 SHIELD
Caherciveen made the trip to Farranfore to take on St Annes a winning one. St Annes did lead after the first quarter 15-13 but the South Kerry side had taken the lead by half time 28-22. Then came an amazing final two quarters as Caherciveen hit 12 three pointers. Brian Quinlan and Ronan Teehan both drained 5 three’s each with Alex Coffey and Ben O’Donoghue also nailing three in a 74-48 win. They went on to defeat St Paul’s 58-50 to lead the table on three wins from three played.
FALCONS WIN CROSSOVER GAME
In the Division2 Ladies crossover Glenbeigh Falcons defeated St Mary’s by 9 points despite the best efforts of Tracey O’Mahoney who hit 6 three pointers in a 30 point haul. Falcons to the table with 5wins from 5.