Ballincollig basketballers outgun Templeogue in Super League rout
Adrian O'Sullivan, Irish Guide Dogs Ballincollig, goes for a lay-up from Callum McGrail and Jake Mullins, Templeogue, at the MTU Arena. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
A much-improved second half from Irish Guide Dogs Ballincollig was good enough to secure maximum points over basement side Templeogue in the Men’s Super League at the MTU on Saturday.
In a game where the home side seldom looked in trouble, only at the start of the third quarter did we witness more urgency in their overall play.
The Dublin side had two crack Americans in Tavias Fagan and Immanuel Allen here Jacobley Owens and Samuel Henderson replaced them. It was confirmed by Templeogue that Allen has returned to the USA, but Fagan missed the game due to a leg injury.
The home side got off to the perfect start with a Joshua Tomaic basket and bonus before Jake Mullins responded with a neat shot outside the arc. Quashawn Lane has shown some lovely touches in recent games and he followed up with consecutive baskets.
There was little doubt Ballincollig looked head and shoulders over their Dublin opponents in the opening exchanges but credit to the visitors they continued to stay within striking distance.
Jake Wolfe has been sensational all season for Ballincollig, but he had a frustrating start in the opening four minutes and was taken out for a break before resuming a minute later. The sides were level at 15 points each in the sixth minute before Wolfe edged the home side ahead with a superb move to the hoop.
The closing minutes were scrappy but Ballincollig, despite using a number of rotations, finished with a three-pointer from Sean McManus that gave them a 27-19 lead entering the second quarter.
A three-pointer from Henderson saw an immediate response from the home side with a Lane bucket. Credit to Callum McGrail the Templeogue post player was working extremely hard as his side were hanging on to stay in the game.
The standard of basketball in the opening four minutes was dreadful from both sides with Ballincollig still holding a nine-point midway through the quarter. The rotations continued as the game was the equivalent of a scrimmage but on the plus side for Ballincollig, they got an opportunity to give some quality court time to fringe players.
Despite looking the dominant team Ballincollig had only a seven-point lead at the break 42-35 after a pretty poor 20 minutes of basketball. Looking at the half-time stats Templeogue shot 10/26 (38%) inside the arc and 3/10 (30%) outside the arc.
The home side fared a little better inside the arc with 15/27 but they didn’t fare so well outside the arc 1/11 (9%).
Ciaran O’Sullivan did produce a long three-pointer on the restart and Lane followed up with a neat jumper and suddenly the lead was extended to 16.
On the next possession, Adrian O’Sullivan nailed a floater as the Templeogue coach Mark Keenan immediately called a time-out to stem the tide.
Ballincollig's tempo dropped as their scoring in the next four minutes reduced considerably. Thankfully for the home fans their team responded for the closing minutes and entering the final quarter they looked home and hosed when commanding a 15-point lead: 71-56.
Coming down the stretch Ballincollig stayed in control as players like Sean O’Flynn, Brendan Dounala and Sean McManus showed their shooting abilities outside the arc. Templeogue to be fair kept battling but they will do well to survive the drop.
J Wolfe 33, Q Lane 16, J Tomaic 13, S McManus 13.
S Henderson 20, J Owens 19, C McGrail 12.
BALLINCOLLIG: J Tomaic, A O’Sullivan, J Wolfe, D O’Herlihy, S O’Flynn, S McManus, C O’Sullivan, R O’Sullivan, L O’Sullivan, D Corkery, K Cairns, Q Lane.
J Owens, C McGrail, J Mullins, D Cassidy, K Cunningham, M Tsyhkanovski, A Tighe, D Murray, J Wright, S Henderson, J Murphy, J Fazande.
Jamie Dooley (Portlaoise), Linda Cassidy (Dublin), S O’Shaughnessy (Tipperary).
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