UL retained their men’s Division B Intervarsities title in style yesterday afternoon with a 69-87 point win over Maynooth University in the final. A stunning 37-point display from Maynooth’s Paddy Sullivan just wasn’t enough in the face of a deep and well-drilled UL team, with Dylan Corkery, Keelan Crowe, Finn Hughes and Diarmuid O’Shea some of the standouts in an all-round solid team performance.
UL got off to a big start in the first, with scores raining in from O’Shea, Corkery and Crowe. Big work at the other end from Sullivan and Finn Hughes kept Maynooth’s scoring ticking over, but UL held a 17-29 lead going into the second.
Momentum stayed with UL into the second, with O’Shea and Vitatistis dominating the scoring for the reigning champions, but again, Sullivan led the way for Maynooth with a huge three getting their scoring underway in the second, with Hughes and Rory Connell adding scores to see the half time score 29-45.
It looked like the pace of the game would remain the same in the third, but Maynooth and Hughes and Sullivan had other ideas. A massive surge midway in the third saw scores dropping from both shooters and big defence inside helping to close down the UL offensive threats. Luke McLoughlin added some super baskets to bring the game right back into the melting pot and they had closed the gap to just two points, 57-59 going into the last quarter, outscoring UL 28-14 for the period.
The holders dug deep in the fourth though, and led by Corkery, began to widen the margin out once more. A huge three from O’Shea followed, with threes from Crowe and Corkery widening the gap even further, and despite the best efforts of Sullivan at the other end, UL held out defend their title well, 69-87.
at the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown.
UL: Diarmuid O’Shea, Dylan Corkery, Greg Buckley, Dylan Dunne, Keelan Crowe, Kevin Kevol, Tommy Walsh, Karolis Vitatistis, Eugence Sweeney, Shane O’Connell.
MAYNOOTH UNIVERSTIY: Finn Hughes, Colin Farrell, Paddy Sullivan, Rory Carroll, Tom Vaughan, Oisin O’Reilly, Luke McLoughlin, Inaki Martinez, Ger Sheahan, Matt Deeney, Brian Monaghan, Liam Grealy.
MVP: Dylan Corkery (UL)
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