SSE Renewables Moycullen take a break from Premier League basketball action this weekend to head into the National Cup.
Moycullen have been drawn against Neptune in the first of the two-leg round one which takes place in Cork on Saturday.
The two sides met in the league a month ago with the Cork outfit running out comfortable 88-68 winners, but Moycullen will head south buoyed by their first league win against Templeogue last weekend.
Once again Moycullen were on the road - for the fourth time in five weeks - but on this occasion they came away with an 83-78 victory in this first meeting between the clubs.
The game started off at a frantic pace and, while Dylan Cunningham kept the opponents’ American quiet, alarms bells were ringing for SSE Renewables Moycullen with Dan James and Phil Taylor combining for 22 of 27 points. However, once again Mike Callaghan was unstoppable in netting 12 first-quarter points and, crucially for Moycullen, the scoring spread was much better than last week with Paul O’Brien to the fore, ably assisted by younger brother Stephen, and Sean Candon to leave the gap at just two.
A poor start to the second saw Templeogue stretching the lead to eight, but a number of defensive switches from SSE Renewables Moycullen saw Eoghan Maxwell doing a great job on the main scoring threats of Templeogue. With Tomas Gilson’s constant harassment of the opponents’ guards, the Dubliners found themselves struggling to get into any offensive rhythm.
SSE Renewables Moycullen took a one-point lead into the third quarter with renewed energy in defence, while at the other end the young team from the west continued to build the lead to leave seven between the teams going into the final 10 minutes.
A three-minute spell in the middle of the final quarter had Moycullen supporters in full vocal flight as Callaghan and O’Brien extended the lead to 10 and, with three minutes to go, Moycullen held out to secure a deserved first win in the campaign.
SSE Renewables Moycullen: Mike Callaghan 31, Stephen O’Brien 14, Dylan Cunningham 12, Paul O’Brien 12, Sean Candon 7, Ronan O’Sullivan 5, Eoghan Maxwell 2, Tomas Gilson, Gerald Lyons, Darragh Mulkerrins, Ian Burke, Nollaig Cunningham.
