Brave Templeogue slip up to Warriors
By Daire Walsh
DESPITE a gallant effort on the day, Griffith College Templeogue fell to a 89-75 defeat at the hands of Garvey’s Tralee Warriors in the InsureMyVan.ie Men’s Super League at the National Basketball Arena last Saturday night.
37-9 adrift at the end of the first-quarter in the Tallaght venue, Mark Keenan’s charges got within 10 points of their Kerry counterparts in the latter stages of the action. Yet the southsiders had left themselves with too much ground to make up and ultimately suffered their seventh reversal of the campaign.
This result ensures that Templeogue occupy 11th spot in the Super League table heading into the Christmas period with their three wins to date keeping them in front of Bright St Vincent’s, UCD Marian and Moycullen. Additionally, they are fifth in the Conference North standings – 15 points and three places adrift of local rivals DBS Éanna.
Francis Mulvihill was the scorer-in-chief for Templeogue against Tralee, contributing an impressive 23 points over the course of the action. He was ably-assisted in the game by Neil Randolph (brother to Republic of Ireland senior international Darren Randolph), who registered 16 points of his side’s final tally.
James Gormley and Calum McGrail came away with eight points each, while Kris Arcilla and Enrique Melini amassed six points apiece. Rounding off the scoring for Templeogue were Daniel Carberry (5) and Luke Thompson (3) as this consistent spread throughout the side helped to keep the hosts within touching distance.
While former Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy was the star name in the Tralee team, De Ondre Jackson and Matija Jokic were the standout performers for last season’s National Cup champions. Between them this pair amassed a grand tally of 54 points, though Daniel Jokubaitis also featured prominently with 11 points.
In a difficult opening to the proceedings, a Melini three-pointer was the pick of the Templeogue scores. Gormley, McGrail and Mulvihill also found the target, before Thompson also contributed three points at the beginning of the second-quarter.
Randolph (twice) and Arcilla subsequently matched this effort from Thompson, but Templeogue nonetheless found themselves 57-28 behind during the interval.
Although Gormley got the home team up and running on the resumption with an excellent basket, Tralee maintained their firm grip on the tie. Still, three consecutive free throws from Melini helped to raise the Templeogue spirits in advance of another stunning Mulvihill three-pointer.
Arcilla and Carberry came up with similar scores, but with their opponents still 23 points in front (72-49), it required a seismic effort from Templeogue to turn the game around inside the final-quarter.
To their credit, Mulvihill, Randolph and Gormley continued to lead the way and kept Tralee on their toes for large spells.
It might not have been enough to prevent a fourth loss on the bounce in the competition, but there were several positive elements from the performance that can be brought into their December 30th duel away to EJ Sligo All Stars.