Maree finished their men’s Superleague campaign in impressive fashion on Saturday night, completing the double over Belfast Star for what was a third successive win to wrap up their season.
Mike Lynch’s side found themselves trailing at the end of the first two quarters, but a dominant third quarter display saw them get their noses in front; and they wrapped up the win with a free-flowing display in the final quarter in which they outscored the visitors 25-7 to finish 96-75 winners.
In finishing eighth in the table, they miss out on the top six play-offs by just one win, and they will regret letting leads slip at home to Killester (a game they lost in overtime ), as well as away games against Neptune and UCD.
On Saturday they trailed 25-20 at the end of the first quarter, and were 52-45 down at half-time, but a 12-point haul from Niels Bunschoten in the third quarter saw them turn things around to lead 71-68 heading into the final quarter.
Then it was the turn of US signing Sean Sellers to sign off on his stay in Maree with a wonderful display of shooting, hitting 12 points of his own in a quarter which saw Maree knock down four successive three-point scores to canter home to a comfortable win.
Maree: Sean Sellers (24 ), Eoin Rockall (17 ), John Burke (2 ), Paul Freeman (18 ), Niels Bunschoten (21 ), Kenneth Hansberry (7 ), Stephen Commins (3 ), Luke McInerney (2 ), Charlie Crowley, Ciaran Blaney (2 ).
Women hunt for clean-sweep
The club’s women’s division one champions head to Carlow on Saturday in their quest to complete a clean-sweep of national trophies. Having already secured the league, cup, division one trophy and Southern Conference titles, all that remains is the division one League Cup, which enters the final stage this weekend.
Maree will take on Phoenix Rockets from Belfast in the second semi-final at IT Carlow at 4pm on Saturday - Ulster Elks meet St Mary’s Castleisland in the first semi-final at 2pm; with the final scheduled for DCU on Sunday April 14.
Meanwhile, the club clinched four Galway A juvenile titles at the Galway Area Basketball Board’s Finals in NUIG on Sunday. They won the U12 A and U13 A boys, and U12A and U13A girls’ titles, and just missed out on a fifth title when their U15 girls were beaten in the A final by Corrib.
