Moycullen venture to Kerry to face recently crowned National Cup champions Tralee Warriors this Saturday in the Basketball Ireland Men’s Superleague.
The sides played out a thriller in Galway in October when the men from the kingdom held on for a 81-84 win, and another tight affair is expected this weekend.
Moycullen coach John Cunningham says the atmosphere in Tralee is always one of the best in the country.
"We are expecting a raucous crowd to welcome their team after they won the National Cup recently”, he says. “They have a lot of scoring options you must try to contain, from two Americans at guard they rotate, to a pair of European big guys that are a real handful, and of course two of the better Irish players in the league in Eoin Quigley and Fergal O’Sullivan.”
Moycullen will be glad to be back in action and forget their most recent outing, a sound trouncing in Galway by Belfast Star. The loss , 46-79 at home, came as something of a shock - Moycullen having won two of their previous three with only a defeat by a single basket on the road against Templeogue preventing what would have been a three game win streak.
Moycullen simply never got out of the blocks and were unable to overturn a colossal 26 point half-time deficit, losing by 33 points on a 79-46 scoreline.
A sluggish first quarter left Moycullen with a small mountain to climb as Belfast Star’s forceful big men Max Cooper and Austin Beech consistently bullied their way to the basket to create high percentage shots.
Their physical play helped the visitors establish an early 19-7 lead as Moycullen struggled to get out of the blocks and appeared to be suffering a hangover from the dramatic nature of their win the previous week.
While the introduction of Dylan Cunningham mid-way through the period helped slow the Belfast duo, Moycullen were unable to chip into the Star lead in any meaningful way, and a three-pointer on the buzzer by Darragh Ferguson had the men from the north up 13-26 going into the second.
A missed easy chance for Moycullen’s Ayberk Taylan to begin the second quarter did little to boost the home side’s confidence, while Belfast connected on the first five points at the restart, stretching their lead to 18 points.
A Joe Tummon basket ended the Moycullen rut, but it was quickly followed by a Star offensive which manifested itself in a sudden flurry of scores for Belfast and a technical foul on Moycullen main man Grant Olsson. The damage was a commanding and deserved Belfast Star lead of 19-45 entering half-time.
A three pointer by Tummon to start the third quarter gave Moycullen hopes of an epic comeback. However, uncommonly for this Moycullen team, slack defensive intensity meant Star ran rampant on the offensive end and were able to follow up the Tummon three with 13 unanswered points.
Refusing to give up the contest, Moycullen’s point guard Eoghan Kelly stepped up and looked to drag his team back in contention. Kelly, aided by an energetic James Lyons, upped the pace of play to try to find some scores on the fast break. It did help Moycullen to reach 34 points by the end of the third quarter, but the damage had been done. Belfast Star's 66 points had them up by almost double scores, and all but guaranteed a valuable road win.
The game played out as expected. Despite some interspersed spirited Moycullen play, they never really looked like threatening a comeback of epic proportions, which is what the scoreline would have required.
