St Joseph’s College have been crowned national champions after defeating defending champions Douglas Community School in the u-15 All-Ireland final on Sunday in UL.
In a rematch of last year’s final, the Western Regional champions - having earlier defeated St Aidan’s College (Cork ) and St Eunan’s (Letterkenny ) in the preliminary round – had advanced to the decider after a challenging and close semi-final against Colaiste Eanna (Dublin ).
The Bish started the final with three quick baskets from Ciaran Conlon, Ciaran Barbour and Cathal Reilly, while the sharp shooting skill of Ronan McKeown forced the Douglas coach to take a timeout to contain the threats from both inside and outside.
Lurglain McDermott played superbly in defence with the result that the Bish ended the first quarter leading by six points.
The Bish shooting guards, Liam Egan, Mark Rohan and Peter O Connor, scored impressive baskets at the start of the second quarter and, with Cathal Reilly dominating the boards, the Bish looked like strong contenders for the title as they led comfortably by 12 points at half time.
Douglas, however, had no intention of surrendering their national title and Jack O’Mahoney and guard Liam Harris combined to contribute 14 points throughout the quarter. This brought the Cork school back into contention, despite five vital points from Padraig Doran and Liam Egan.
With both teams unbeaten throughout the season, the final quarter was extremely tense. However the Bish managed to maintain their slender lead with superb post moves from captains Peter Cooke and Padraig Doran and solid outside shooting from Peter O’Connor and Liam Egan.
Mark Rohan controlled the point exceptionally well and his decision-making was crucial in the final minutes.
Although Douglas managed to equalise with 11 seconds on the clock, the Bish secured a memorable victory when Padraig Doran managed to grab a rebound and put it back up and into the basket.
Bish coach Brendan Doheny said the team’s inner belief helped them in those final tense minutes.
“This team possesses a self confidence and an inner belief that I knew would carry them over the line. It really shows that hard work and dedication does pay dividends and clearly stands to you on court and in life itself.”
