Garvey's Tralee Warriors recored a huge 77-68 victory over Griffith College Templeogue in the Sports Complex in Tralee on Saturday.
In a much-anticipated game, Tralee came into the game with a record of 2-2 while Templeogue were 2-1. Tralee’s Jonathan Lawton put up an impressive 20-point display in front of the home crowd. Eoin Quigley and Paul Dick supported Lawton with 16 and 15 points respectively.
Templeogue were led by last year’s Player of the Year Jason Killeen who had 17 points in what was a thrilling game throughout.
After the game, Tralee head coach Pat Price said, "Offensively it was difficult for both teams to get into a flow but we felt that our defence would be able to help create some offence with forcing turnovers. We’re happy to get through a game that lacked flow against a team that are as good as Templeogue."
UCD Marian emerged victorious, 77-89 over Maree in a game that saw the lead change multiple times for stretches during the game. UCD got off to a hot start through scores from Aidan Dunne before Maree took the lead just before the end of the first half.
The third quarter saw Maree take the lead for a period as they made consecutive scores forcing UCD to call two timeouts. Darin Johnson and Eoin Rockall made some impressive scores for Maree before UCD took over towards the end of the game, behind 23 points from Mike Garrow, to carry out the victory.
Speaking afterward, UCD Marian head coach Ioannis Liapakis said, "It’s always tough to come to Maree so we knew it was going to be a difficult game. We controlled the first quarter and in the second they switched to a zone which gave us some problems but we managed to find the answers and come away with the win."
Elsewhere in the league, an impressive 25-point performance from CJ Fulton led Belfast Star to a 76-68 victory over Moycullen in Belfast. The game was close throughout with Moycullen’s Grant Olsson finishing with 24 points as Star pulled away towards the finish.Pyrobel Killester recorded a narrow 67-70 over winless Abbey Seals Dublin Lions in a Dublin derby.
Killester were led by Tomas Fernandez who finished with a massive 27 points. Killester’s Antonio Odunuga suffered an injury before the game, leaving them down a player. Lions were led by Conroy Baltimore with 17 points as they are still in search for their first win of the season.
Finally, DCU Saints defeated Keane’s SuperValu Killorglin 85-70 behind a 21-point performance from Michael Bonaparte. Killorglin’s Allan Thomas led his side with 26 points as they tried in vain to chase DCU’s lead after a scoring run in the second half.
