Loftus Recycling : 85
Subway Portlaoise : 57
Team Loftus Recycling, Ballina, had a comprehensive 28-point win over Subway Portlaoise, in division one of the National Basketball League in St Mary’s Sports Hall, Portlaoise, on Saturday night. The victory puts the Ballina side in with a very good chance of making the play-off stages of the league.
After a slow start, which saw the home side take an early lead, Ballina settled into their game and, with the scores coming mainly from Toafic Mustapha and Peter Papic, they ended the first quarter with a six point lead (23 to 17 ). Paul Barrett came into the game more for Team Loftus in the second period and his nine point contribution helped extend his team’s lead to nine points by half time (41 to 32 ) despite the home team landing three three pointers in this period with Greg Dunne, Peter O’Sullivan, and Kevin O’Donoghue all hitting the target from outside the arc.
The start of the third quarter saw Ballina extend their lead with a basket from Barrett followed by the three pointer from player coach, Liam McHale. With Mustapha hitting four more baskets and Mark Cunningham landing another for the visitors, the home side were in trouble and managed to score only 11 points in this period compared with 22 for Loftus Recycling who had built up a 20-point lead at the three-quarter stage (63 to 43 ).
Three baskets by Alan Burnell and a three pointer from Shane O’Neill kept Portlaoise hopes alive in the final quarter but a good three pointer from Cunningham and a string of scores by an improving Peter Papic ensured that the points came west as the Mayo men extended their lead to 28 at the final buzzer.
Loftus Recycling: Paul Barrett (23 ), Peter Papic (18 ), Taofic Mustapha (22 ), Anthony McHale (2 ) Neil MacHale, Brian O’Malley (2 ), Mark Cunningham (5 ).
Subway Portlaoise: Shane Bracken 2 ), Peter O’Sullivan (8 ), Alan Burnell (9 ), Gary Donnelly (22 ), Greg Dunne (7 ), Gerard Egan (8 ), Kevin O’Donoghue (7 ), Morgan O’Sullivan (9 ).
Next weekend: Next Saturday Team Loftus Recycling make the long journey to Waterford where they take on the home side in Waterford IT Sports Centre at 7.30pm.
