SUMMERHILL BEATEN IN FINAL
U16 ‘A’ SCHOOLS’ ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE FINAL
AFTER A glorious season that saw them reach the U16 ‘ A’ Schools All-Ireland League final, Summerhill College fell at the last hurdle Thursday at the National Basketball Arena, losing to an excellent Douglas Community College side from Cork.
In Douglas, Summerhill ran into one the very best two duos in underage Irish basketball in Jack O’Mahony and Liam Harris and despite a truly heroic effort, fell just short
Looking back at the game, Summerhill will come to rue their sluggish start which saw them trailing by 10 points at the end of the first quarter.
They got off to the worst possible start when that dynamic duo of Harris and O’Mahony netted the first 5 points of the game. It was then seven to nil before Summerhill’s Cillian Gallagher connected on a delicate baby hook shot down the lane to get the lads from Sligo on the board.
O’Mahony continued to prove unguardable in this period and before Summerhill knew it, the quarter’s buzzer had sounded and the scoreboard read 20 to 10 in favour of Douglas.
Determined not be swept away, Summerhill came out a changed force in the second quarter. Led by a superhuman effort by Gallagher under the boards, they clawed their way back into the game.
With Douglas beginning to foucs their defence more and more on Gallagher under the ring, space opened up for other with Julian Jarmolovicz and Cian Lally both having success with long range attempts.
While they had steadied the ship, Summerhill still found themselves trailing at half time by 34 points to 25.
Spurred on by head coach John Moran, Summerhill kept the battle going as Philip Hamilton in particular began to find ways to score
Their efforts saw the Sligo side narrow the gap to four entering the final period but unfortunately that was as close as they would get.
Their zone defence played conservatively throughout the game and they in essence simply hoping that Douglas would miss the outside shots being given to them.
In the end, Douglas made those shots with Harris and O’Mahony as well as Gary Pineda and Adam Walsh all making big baskets down the stretch.
While it wasn’t t be for Summerhill on this occasion, the team and their supporters can be extremely proud of the 55 to 51 loss against an excellent Douglas outfit.
Summerhill never gave up the fight and in Cillian Gallagher they have one of the outstanding young talents in the country. MVP – Liam Harris, Douglas Community School, Cork Douglas Community School 55 (34) (Jack O’Mahony 23, Liam Harris 16, Gary Pineda 8) Summerhill College Sligo 51 (25) (Cillian Gallagher 17, Cian Lally 12, Philip Hamilton 11) Summerhill team Julian Jarmolovicz, Mark Chambers, Cillian Gallagher, Luke McLoughlin, Philip Hamilton, Jack McLoughlin, Colin Gilligan, Cian Lally, Oisin O’Reilly, Tiernan Courell, Peter O’Hara, Donal Glennon