Moycullen suffered another tough loss away from home this past weekend, falling by 108–79 to a physically dominant Templeogue in Dublin.
Once again size and speed proved to be Moycullen’s undoing - the experienced Templeogue outfit, led by 6' 10" Irish international Jason Killeen, ground out a convincing victory.
Moycullen started the game well with some excellent scores by Isaiah Harris-Winn and Joseph Tummon.
Moycullen were using their lack of size as an advantage early on, pulling the Templeogue defence wide, and connecting on drives to the basket and long range three-point efforts.
Templeogue quickly found their rhythm however, and they soon began to profit from a steady diet of post-up play close to the ring and physical moves to the basket.
In a continuing trend from recent games, Moycullen’s opposition benefited from a greater number of attacks that finished with close range efforts; while the westerners were often forced to rely on their long-distance shooting. At the half time break, the home side led 54 to 41.
Never wanting for effort, Moycullen rallied in the third period, led by team captain Patrick Lyons and Dylan Cunningham.
It never truly looked like being enough though, and while the men from Galway reduced and kept the margin to single digits for most of the third period, Templeogue never looked really under pressure, and mananged to find scores when they needed to.
In the fourth quarter, Templeogue were dominant. The play of their inside men, coupled with the speed of their guards saw them firing on all cylinders, and Moycullen simply could not hold back the onslaught.
The loss sees Moycullen drop to bottom position in the Superleague.
It does not get any easier for the men from the west over the next two weekends - they remain on the road, playing Tralee Warriors on Saturday night in the Kingdom, before returning to Dublin the following weekend.
The Connemara men will be hoping that a long home-game stint after Christmas might turn their season around.
Moycullen scorers: Isaiah Harris Winn (29 ), Patrick Lyons (18 ), Joseph Tummon (13 ), Cian Nihill (8 ), Paul Kelly (6 ), Dylan Cunningham (3 ), Kyle Cunningham (2 ), James Lyons, Dara Kenna.
