Title chasing wins for Warriors and Killorglin

MEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Keanes Killorglin 83 Neptune 79

KEANES Supervalu Killorglin hosted powerhouse Neptune BC last Saturday in a proverbial ‘winner takes all’ game, with both teams, along with Ballincollig, at the top of the league table going into this game, all with just with two losses this season.

Early scores from Daniel Jackobitus and Darragh Jones gave Keanes a 6-0 lead but Neptune don’t have a fearsome reputation for no reason and they responded with 14 unanswered points, primarily from the hands of American Jarrel Marshall. However, Killorglin coach Ignas Sijanus calmed things down and brought in young superstar Eoin O’Sullivan, who scored four points. The quarter ended with Killorglin trailing 22-27.

After an early trade of scores in the second Neptune brought in the experienced Ger Noonan and he started to cause Killorglin problems in offence, but Neptune had problems of their own, with Declan Wall and Daniel Jacobitus feeding Bogdanovic good ball, and he was making hay under the boards.

Keane’s finished the quarter with a three-pointer from Declan Wall to trail 44-46 at half time.

Killorglin shifted gears in the third quarter and opened with nine points, including a three from Wall. Neptune could only respond with one basket in this period but they refused to go away, and after back to back threes from Darragh O’Sullivan and Roy Downey it was game on again.

The pivotal moment occurred when Neptune’s Marshall, who had contributed 26 points at this stage, was called for an offensive foul, and after strong objections he was called for a technical foul – this gave him his fifth foul and he was out of the game.

Keane’s backs were now up and when Bogdanovic finished the quarter with an outstanding slam dunk Killorglin led 72-57.

Coach Sijanus showed he had learnt his lesson from the previous game when tiredness got the better of his team, so he brought in David McCarthy and Eoin Evans to give Bogdanovic and Grey a break. The last quarter was end to end stuff, and had everything: Downey hitting threes for Neptune, Jacobitus answering for Killorglin,a full court press by Neptune, controlled basketball by Killorglin, controversial referee decisions.

Neptune started to make inroads on the lead, primarily via Roy Downey, and reduced the deficit to four points with 1.34 left on the clock. Neptune had a few three-point attempts in the last minute but couldn’t get the ball to drop – credit Killorglin’s excellent defence for that too. TOP SCORERS

KILLORGLIN: Daniel Jackobitus 27 pts, Declan Wall 17, Ivan Bogdanovic 14

NEPTUNE BC: Jarrel Marshall 26 pts, Gary Walsh 12 pts, Roy Downey 10 pts

Killorglin play Fr Matthews in Cork this Saturday, where a win will guarantee at least a play-off for the league title. Ballincollig entertain Neptune also on Saturday and Killorglin will be hoping Neptune beat their neighbours and allow Killorglin to bring a National League title back over the Laune, but there may be a few twists to come yet.