St Mary’s reach Men’s Division One Cup final
Padraig Harnett
ST Mary’s have qualified for the Men’s Division One Cup final after a hard fought 69-65 semi-final win over Tralee Imperials.
St Mary’s led 16-13 at the end of the first quarter as Darragh Kennelly and Caolan Crowe leading the way for the Tralee side and the O’Connell’s Shane and Darragh on the mark for the Castleisland side.
Imperials made a big move in the second quarter with Crowe again finding his range hitting 8. St Mary’s needed a 5 points from Seamus Brosnan and two big three’s to keep in touch as they trailed 30-36 at the half.
A Brosnan three got St Mary’s going in the third quarter and by the end of the ten minutes the gap was halved with Imperials on 51 to St Mary’s 48.
Daire Kennelly showed his class in the final quarter hitting 7 of 8 from the free throw line but Gary O’Sullivan came up big for St Mary’s with a three-pointer followed by a quick two to see them lead by a basket. Crowe responded with three of his own but it wasn’t enough as Seamus Brosnan once again showed he doesn’t feel pressure as he made two from two from the line to wrap up the win.
For St Mary’s Brosnan ended with 26, Gary O’Sullivan 14, Shane O’Connell on 13 and Darragh O’Connell had 12. Caolan Crowe led the Imperials scoring on 25, Daire Kennelly 21 and Raul Venczel on 7.
St Mary’s will meet either St Paul’s or St Brendan’s in the Cup final.
Bridget’s win in Boys’ U-16 Division 2
There was an opening day win for St Bridget’s in the Boys u16 League Division 2. They defeated Kenmare Kestrels 64-43. The opening half of this game was a tight affair with the Currow side leading by 6 at the break 31-25. It took until the last quarter for them to pull away and take the win. St Bridget’s are in second one point behind Kenmare Kestrels in the early stages of this League.
For St Bridget’s Cathal Brosnan hit 32 and John O’Connor 14 while for Kenmare Aidan O’Connor ended with 13 and Tommy O’Sullivan 10.
St Annes win U-14 Boys Division 2 cracker
The crowd in the Farranfore hall were treated to a cracker in the Boys u14 Division 2 where St
Annes were 42-41 point winners over KCYMS.
The home side’s Gearoid Evans and Killorglin’s Patrick Radney both hit 4 points in the opening quarter to see St Annes leading 10-7. Simon O’Leary was having a big game under both boards and hit 8 in the second quarter to lead 24-13 with Dara Hogan having hit 6 points for KCYMS.
KCYMS took over in the third quarter with Conor Buckley and Hogan adding 7 each to their total and it was 31-30 to the visitors with ten minutes to play.
The game was on the line with KCYMS leading 41-39 with just 25 seconds on the clock but Gearoid Evans became the hero as the home side took the win thanks mainly to their wide spread of scorers.
The top scorers for St Annes were Simon O’Leary on 9, Gearoid
Evans on 8 and Colm Riordan, Daithi o’Shea and Micheal Fitzgerald all ending with 6 points. Dara Hogan led the KCYMS scoring on 17 while Conor Buckley shot 14 and Patrick Radney on 8.
St Mary’s are runner-up in Limerick Celtic’s Tournament
St Mary’s Boys U-14 team brought home the runner’s up prize from the Limerick Celtic’s tournament after the beat Dublin Lions 44-30 and Portlaoise Panthers 43-38 before going down to the hosts.
Wildcat’s girls into Plate semi-final: There was a thriller in the u12 Girls Plate with Ballybunion Wildcats defeating Kenmare Kestrels 19-18 in overtime in a nail biter. Wildcats will have to wait to see who their semi-final opponents are while St Colmans Rockets and Glenbeigh Falcons will meet kin the other semi-final.
St Anne’s into Division 2 Plate final
St Annes welcomed Killarney Cougars in the first U-14 Girls Division 2 Plate semi-final. After a nervous start by both sides St Anne’s Caoimhe McCarthy found her range and with Katie Doe having a very good second quarter the Farranfore girls led 17-9 at the break despite the best efforts of Sinead Colleran of Cougars.
Both teams were evenly matched in the third quarter with scores from Aoife O’Sullivan and Doireann O’Shea helping St Annes to a 31-23 lead.
Laura Flynn and Katie Doe were amongst the St Anne’s scorers in the final quarter to ensure the win and book their place in the Plate final where they meet TK Cobras / St Josephs or Caherciveen.