Cork County Basketball Under 14 Boys Tournament
The Cork County Basketball Board held its Under 14 Boys Tournament on Saturday November 16th. It featured teams from Cork, Dublin and a number of teams from the western seaboard with teams from Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway and Sligo competing across the two venues.
The day started off with Blue Demons v. Carrigaline and St. Brendan’s v. Titans tipping off in Parochial Hall and another Cork derby in Gaelcholaiste Mhuire with Ballincollig v. Bantry. From the 9 a.m. start to shortly after 3 p.m. the teams battled away for places in our quarter finals. With a nice geographical spread to our quarterfinals. Blue Demons met Limerick Lions met in quarter-final 1 and defeated the Lions by 16 points. Quarter-final 2 on the opposite court saw St. Mary’s defeat Titans. This was followed up quarterfinals 3 and 4 with Eanna meeting Limerick Celtics and Dublin Lions meeting Clare, two big wins from the Dublin sides saw them advance to the semi-finals.
Both semi-finals tipped off simultaneously on Court 1 and Court 2 in the Parochial Hall with Blue Demons meeting Eanna on Court 1 and St. Mary’s, Castleisland meeting Dublin Lions on Court 2. Blue Demons battled bravely on Court 1 throwing everything at Eanna, unfortunately Eanna seem to provide an answer for every question Demons posed and advanced to our final. With this game finishing slightly ahead of the game on Court 2, this allowed both teams to watch the end of our other semi-final on Court 2. In an ultra-competitivegame with neither team leading by more than 7 points, St. Mary’s leading by 6 points with a few minutes remaining in the last quarter looked finals bound but Dublin Lions battled back into contention with this game having late time-outs to set out plays or defence and a last-ditch attempt by the Lions to nick the game, St. Mary’s Castleisland holding out in the end to win on a scoreline of 43 pts to 42 pts.
Following a short break after a long day our finalists Eanna and St. Mary’s Castleisland met on Court 1, again those in attendance were treated to an ultra-competitive match. Again,another game with neither team taking a double-digit lead, Eanna lead at the end of the first quarter with a 7 point lead. As with all Under 14 games rotation strategy plays it part, with St. Mary’s combinations better by winning the second quarter and narrowing the lead to 4 points, 22pts to 18pts. Honours were practically even in the 3rd quarter with both teams trading point for point for much of it but with Eanna finishing strongly it finished a 13 to 9 point quarter and the score-line heading into the fourth of 35 pts to 27 pts. With St. Mary’s, Castleisland tiring our tournament M.V.P. Jamie Charles did what tournament M.V. P’s do and took over the fourth quarter with some incredible drives to the basket and either dishing to assist or scoring himself. Castleisland battled bravely but could not make any further dents on the scoreline and Eanna closed out the game with a 10-point win and taking the Under 14 trophy back to Dublin.
Just after 7 o’clock and after eleven hours of basketball, Cork County Basketball Board Chairman Willie McCarthy congratulated both teams on their day and thanked supporters, volunteers, and hall staff for making the day a success. In a new departure this year for our M.V.P. presentation, it fell on Neville Charles to present his son Jamie with the M.V.P. award, congratulations. The day closed with Cork County Basketball board P.R.O. Kevin Ginn presenting Eanna’s joint captains with the trophy.
