St Joseph’s College, Galway, have advanced to this year’s All Ireland Colleges’ A Basketball Championship final, keeping alive their aim of securing a three-in-a-row.
Having defeated St Fintan’s, Sutton, in the quarter-final, they overcame a fancied St Malachy’s College in the u-16 A All-Ireland semi-final in Sligo on Sunday to book their place in the final in the NBA Tallaght on March 24. The Galway school will now defend their national title against Presentation College, Bray.
Belfast hit the court running with the Quinn twin brothers shooting St Malachy’s into an eight-point lead, but three successive baskets from the Bish trio of captain Patrick Lyons, Dylan Costello and Stephen O’Brien reduced the gap.
Despite the aerial advantage of Malachy’s 6’ 5” Liam Pettigrew and the exceptional shooting of the Quinn twins, the Bish managed to remain within five points at half time thanks to six solid points from Padraig Doran and some huge offensive rebounds from Sean O Sullivan.
In the third quarter the Bish started a display of three-point shooting led by their three Irish internationals O’ Brien, Costello and Lyons that left the Belfast side five points adrift leading into the final quarter. With the skilful Seamus Garrity controlling the point position for the Bish and setting up some excellent assists for post players Doran and O’Sullivan the Galway school built up their lead in the fourth quarter.
They effectively closed out Malachy’s in the last few minutes, forcing them into deliberate fouling and Patrick Lyons, Dylan Costello and Stephen O Brien capitalised from the free throw line. Despite a valiant three-pointer score from Conor Quinn in the final seconds, the Bish secured their place in the All Ireland final.
