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Oatlands:
66 Benildus: 63
The Oatlands
Senior Basketball team showed great character in securing a
very hard fought victory over local rivals St. Benildus in
the school Sports Hall on Monday, 28th January,
to qualify for the knock out stages of the All Ireland
Senior Schools Basketball Competition.
In the first quarter Oatlands started at
a blistering pace, racing into an eight point lead. However,
Benildus struck back immediately, scoring 6 points without
reply. From then on the game settled into a cat and mouse
affair with points being traded at both ends. Oatlands ended
the first quarter with a three point lead.
There were few scores in the second
quarter but some sharp shooting from Tadas Kargelis and
Darragh Stewart helped Oatlands to maintain their advantage
and they went into the break with a 2 point lead.
At the start of the second half all hell
broke loose as Oatlands seemed to have forgotten how to
defend. Time and again Benildus got in to score from an easy
lay-up. Despite two important scores from Tadas, Benildus
still managed to finish the quarter with a 12 point lead.
This is by far the worst quarter Oatlands have played all
year.
Things were looking very bleak as with
only a minute and a half remaining the score was 45-52 to
Benildus. Oatlands’ dreams of All Ireland Basketball glory
looked dashed. Resorting to a full court press led to 2 turn
overs and 2 scores. An amazing 3 pointer from Shane Egan
then brought the gap down to 3 points. With only 14 seconds
left on the clock, a quick one-two between Shane Egan and
Nick Devereux created space in the lane for Shane Egan to
drive. Drawing the foul and hitting the shot, meant that
Benildus’ lead was cut to one. With only five seconds left
Shane Egan’s free throw would decide our fate. In sinking
that shot he effectively sank Benildus’ hopes, and forced
the overtime that became Oatland’s platform for victory.
!!!BRING ON THE
ALL IRELANDS!!!
Scorers:
Shane Egan (MVP): 34
Taddas: 14
Nick Devereux: 10
Darragh Stewart: 6
Kunle : 2
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