The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
A first win on the road for Warriors
MEN’S SUPERLEAGUE TV Ireland Tralee Warriors 77, KUBS, Dublin 59
A SECOND win on the spin for the Kingdom’s standard bearers in the men’s Superleague, a success, which was ultimately quite comfortable and convincing in the Carroll Arena, Greendale, last Saturday night.
However, they had to dig deep throughout all of the third quarter to mantain a marginal scoring advantage, but, with the outcome delicately poised American, Trae Pemberton still struggling with an ankle injury, stepped up to the plate to net some crucial baskets and steer his side into a commanding position.
Warriors’ starting five of Kieran Donaghy, Ryan Leonard, Dusan Bogdanovic, Darragh O’Hanlon and Trae Pemberton had a pretty formidable look about it, and significantly all five finished on double figures with Pemberton topping the list on twenty one points.
Warriors exerted a grip from the outset and were 18/7 in front at the midway point in the opening quarter. Solid at both ends of the court, the Tralee side mantained their scoring advantage, and, were 27/15 in front at the end of the first quarter.
With Coach Mark Bernsten rotating his squad, Darren and Fergal O’Sullivan came into the game for their first piece of the action, as Warriors maintainer a scoring advantage.
However, a response from KUBS coming up to half time, meant that the margin was reduced to eight (32/40) at the interval break. The momentum was maintained by the home side from the outset of the third quarter, and, successive three point scores meant that the deficit was reduced to a single point (46/47) with three and a half minutes remaining in the quarter.
With Trae Pemberton becoming a hugely influential figure scoring wise, and converting a brace of three point scores, Warriors consolidated their situation once again to open up a nine point gap (48/57).
The starting five were reintroduced at the beginning of the final quarter as Warriors continued to dictate matters and increase their advantage to all of twenty points. Dusan Bogdanovic, whose dominance of the boards was a key element in his side’s success was withdrawn having accumulated four fouls, and, the contest drifted to its inevitable conclusion.
John Dowling, Stephen Hannifin, Paul McMahon, and Gary Murphy were all afforded court time, with Murphy in fact scoring the final basket to seal a victory which was hard earned, but, overall, was achieved due to the height advantage which Warriors enjoyed allied to a much better spread of scorers.
The return of Kieran Donaghy, obviously boosted the side’s options and overall effectiveness considerably, while, Darren O’Sullivan continued to add to his growing reputation, with a notable input in all facets of play.
It was a win which pleased Coach Mark Bernsten and is another step along the way, as Warriors gear up for some tougher tasks up ahead.
“I had hoped we would improve from the week before. I think the key word now is improvement, the team learning to play with each other, how to play in the League. I thought we played one good quarter at home last week, and I thought we played two good quarters up in Dublin this weekend. So, I am pleased with the improvement, but, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
“We shared the ball extremely well, in the two quarters we played well. We’re an unselfish team, on, and, off the floor. Dusan [Bogdanovic] played well in the post area, we drove into the post with penetrating dribbles, both Ryan [Leonard] and [Kieran] Donaghy to be fair took advantage of that.
“As a team, as I said before, we are a work in progress, they’re working towards an end, they’re doing well in training. I told the guys after the match that we are going to see better teams next week, the following week, so, I am hoping that we step up and match our better opponents with improved effort.”
Top Scorers Warriors, Trae Pemberton (21), Ryan Leonard (17), Dusan Bogdanovic (14), KUBS Brian Edwards (19), Jonathan Riles (14) Stephen Ingle (8).
Warriors travel back to Dublin to engage SEE Airtricity Moycullen in the National Arena in Tallaght on this coming Saturday with a tip off time of 4pm in a game which is being streamed live by Basketball Ireland.