The West U15 Boys have retained Basketball Ireland's Tom Collins inter-regional tournament with five impressive wins.
The team, with players from seven different post-primary schools in Galway, showed the strength of schools’ basketball in the county. Victories over the South-East 51-32; North-West 52-33, and South 60-54 ensured they went into the semi-final as favourites, winning 54-37 before overcoming the East 52-30 in the final.
The team enjoyed a strong start, beating the South-East by 19 points with Cian Gorham, Tony Ezeonu, Kento O’Connor and Cian Marks leading the scoring. And, after a similarly strong opening against the North-West, leading 16-6 at the end of the first quarter, the West pulled away in the last quarter, with the last five scores coming from Aenghus McBrierty, Hugh Melvin, Cailim McDonagh, Jason Nwose and a three-pointer from Ethan O’Halloran.
The toughest challenge came from the South, but Padraig MacNeela and Bryan Walsh produced strong defensive performances to limit their opponents to ensure the West topped the group with three wins.
The strong form continued in the semi-final with strong second-half displays from Diarmuid Hayes and Fabio Garcia-Mooney to set up the final meeting with hot favourites, East.
Although missing Daniel Philpott and guard Eoin Hardiman through injury, the West kept dominated the final from start to finish, winning every quarter, with fast break scores from Brian Mitchell and Cian Marks, and Jason Nwose chipping in with a three-pointer. Top scorers were Cian Marks (16 points ), Tony Ezeonu (15 points ) and Jason Nwose (5 points ).
