Moycullen’s luckless road run continued on Saturday when falling 95-73 to Tralee Warriors in Basketball Ireland’s Men’s Superleague.
Head coach John Cunningham will be glad to see the end of this long stretch of away games as Moycullen play their last away game next weekend before returning to the NUI Galway Kingfisher gym for a lengthy stretch in the New Year.
Moycullen guard Kyle Cunningham, who hit his personal season high on Saturday with an impressive 21 points, says it has been tough.
"It has definitely been a tough run from a results standpoint, but there have been a lot of positives to take in spite of these losses,” he says.
“Tralee just outlasted us. We have such a young team, I think we are learning all the time and will be in good shape for the really important games we’ve got coming up.”
As always, Tralee Sports Complex was full to capacity 30 minutes before last weekend’s game tipped off.
Moycullen fed off that energy early, and Cunningham, alongside Joseph Tummon, got on the scoresheet and gave their side a narrow early lead.
Tralee’s sharp shooting American star Jordan Evans was ready to respond, however, and some sloppy Moycullen defence saw him nail back-to-back three-pointers.
Through Evans’s long-range prowess and a steady diet of fast break scores, Tralee upped their lead to 13 by the time the half-time whistle blew.
While Moycullen dug in admirably, somehow winning the rebound statistical battle despite being outsized at every single position, the visitors were never able to mount a serious momentum building run.
Moycullen fought on, but Tralee, energised by their impressively vocal home support, never lapsed in concentration and saw the game out with relative ease.
The loss sees Moycullen remain in bottom position of the Superleague.
While coach Cunnningham will be somewhat pleased to see Moycullen holding their opponents below the 100 point scoring mark for the first time in several weeks, next weekend will no doubt be another difficult task for the Galway men when they take on reigning champs UCD Marian in Dublin this Saturday.
Moycullen Scorers: Kyle Cunningham (21 ), Isaiah Harris Winn (16 ), Joseph Tummon (11 ), Dylan Cunningham (8 ), Paul Kelly (7 ), Cian Nihill (4 ), Patrick Lyons (2 ), James Connaire (2 ), Josh Marvesley (2 ), Dara Kenna,
