Back-to-back wins puts Warriors top

Garvey’s Tralee Warriors are top of the Superleague following two Bank Holiday weekend wins. Saturday’s 90-78 win over Pyrobel Killester in Clontarf was followed by an 80-71 home win over another Dublin team, Eanna, on Monday afternoon to make it six wins in a row for the Tralee team and put them top of the table.

Saturday’s game away to Killester saw the visitors lead throughout and a mix of dominant defence and a quality offensive display, including a personal tally of 30 points from Trae Pemberton, proved to be more than enough to secure a 12-point win.

Nearing the end of the first quarter Killester were six ahead, but the Warriors stormed back with Daragh O’Hanlon on the mark, Pemberton’s first three of the night and Kieran Donaghy finishing a slick move as the visitors led 27-24 at quarter time.

In the second Warriors found scores from all areas through Pantovic, Darren and Fergal O’Sullivan and Pa McCarthy, and a buzzer beater from O’Hanlon in the last act of the first half provided a twopoint cushion for the Warriors.

Killester wrestled back the lead through Sullivan and Luis Filiberto but the Warriors put themselves into a game winning position with a volley of scores of the highest standard from Dusan Bogdanovic and the outstanding Pemberton to put the Warriors seven ahead at three-quarter time.

Despite Quigley and Fergal O’Sullivan adding early scores for the Warriors in the final quarter, Killester refused to surrender and through Casey, Luis Filiberto and Roe they kept on touch. However, Pemberton’s sublime efforts from distance added his fifth and sixth threes of the game to help Warriors to a 15-point lead.

With seconds remaining Goran Pantovic slam dunked spectacularly to add a touch of class to a very impressive team performance from the Warriors and arguably their best of the season so far. SCORERS

KILLESTER: Ciaran Roe 17, Paddy Sullivan 17, Luis Filiberto 15

WARRIORS: Trae Pemberton 30, Fergal O’Sullivan 13, Goran Pantovic 10

WARRIORS’ winning weekend continued with a 80-71 win over Eanna at a packed Tralee Complex. The visitors opened brightly with Aidan Dunne and former Killorglin player Garny Garcia on the mark early but the hosts settled quickly and were 24-15 ahead at quarter time. Pemberton hit a three from distance to take up where he left off on Saturday and when O’Sullivan and Eoin Quigley fired in from outside the Warriors looked like they would kick on. However, Garcia was causing problem for Warriors and his 11 points in the quarter had just five between the sides at half time.

At the end of the third quarter there was still just five between the sides. Bogdanovic began to dominate under the Eanna board early in the final quarter but Dunne’s 10 points in the third put the Dublin side within touching distance heading down the stretch. However, four three-pointers in a row, two each by O’Hanlon and Pemberton, saw Warriors into a 15-point lead and Donaghy, Pemberton and Darren O’Sullivan chipped in late free throws to secure the ninepoint victory.

SCORERS

WARRIORS: Trae Pemberton 28, Dusan Bogdanovic 12, Daragh O’Hanlon 11

EANNA: Aidan Dunne 27, Garny Garcia Nivar 26, Tamron Manning 12 Garvey’s Tralee Warriors host UCD Marian this Saturday at 8pm.

Tamron Manning of Eanna in action against Darragh O’Hanlon of Garvey’s Tralee Warriors during the Basketball Ireland Men’s Superleague match between Garveys Tralee Warriors and Eanna BC at Tralee Sports Complex in Tralee, Kerry. Photo by Brendan...