Brilliant Ballincollig basketballers land first National Cup crown
Ballincollig players lift the cup after their side's victory in the Domino’s MSL National Cup final against Garveys Tralee Warriors. Picture: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
A spectacular opening quarter from Ballincollig set the tone as they lifted the Pat Duffy Men’s National Cup for the first time.
Their first-quarter brilliance, which put them 34-20 up, saw them in total control as they powered towards a comfortable win over Tralee Warriors at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday.
John McHale speaks with Ciaran O Sullivan, coach of Ballincollig after their National Cup Final victory over Tralee pic.twitter.com/wxFrCJL3ai
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This was probably one of the finest shooting performances ever witnessed at basketball headquarters as the winners made an amazing 18 three-pointers. This game will long live in the mind of Ballincollig's American point guard Latrell Jossell. He demolished Warriors with an exhibition of three-point shooting, finishing with eight made, as he was deservedly named MVP after his 31-point contribution.
Another huge plus for Ballincollig was the manner they defended, particularly when the Warriors threatened a revival in the third quarter.
Collectively, Ballincollig were fine-tuned and the Warriors found themselves chasing the game very early.
Both sides were tentative in the opening exchanges until the Warriors' American Irshad Hunte nailed a jumper in the second minute.
Ballincollig stuck to their game-plan and Keelan Cairns drained a huge three on their next possession. Jossell nailed a shot outside the paint, followed by another from Josh Steel.
With Tralee conscious of the inside threat of Latavious Mitchell, who excelled in the semi-final against Limerick Celtics, Ballincollig were getting a lot of good looks from outside the arc and raced into 20-10 lead.
Amazingly, Jossell swished six three-pointers in the opening seven minutes as the Warriors were on the ropes when trailing by 13 points. It wasn’t that the Warriors were playing poorly it's just that Ballincollig’s shooting was off the charts, with 10 threes in eight minutes.
Leading 34-20 entering the second quarter, Ballincollig reintroduced American Latavious Mitchell, who sat out after committing his second foul in the fifth minute. The three-pointers continued to rain down on Tralee and by the 12th minute, they'd made 13 of their 18 attempts to surge into a 44-22 lead.
As this quarter matured, Warriors' defence improved and midway through this period, they had reduced the deficit to 44-27.
Ballincollig’s scoring avalanche slowed but player-coach Ciaran O’Sullivan ended the drought with a stunning shot outside the arc in the 16th minute.
On each occasion that the Warriors threatened a revival, Ballincollig responded. With 1.10 to the interval they still commanded a 20-point lead. In the closing possessions, various rotations were used by both sides but Ballincollig remained in pole position at the break with a 21-point cushion: 61-40.
The half-time stats showed the Leesiders made 4/13 (31%) inside the arc but their shooting outside the paint was off the charts, making 16 of the 25 attempts, a 64% average.
The Kerry side had 8/20 inside the paint (40%) and outside the paint they had a 5/18 (28%). That was the clear difference.
Warriors increased the tempo outscoring Ballincollig 6-2 in the opening minute of the third.
Suddenly Ballincollig looked tentative, but Adrian O’Sullivan eased the pressure with a crucial three-pointer. Midway through the quarter, Ballincollig led by 18 points and Warriors needed a spark from somewhere.
To be fair, the Warriors battled like trojans, but they simply couldn’t handle the pressure Ballincollig put on them.
The contribution of Josh Steel in defence was immense as he nullified the threat of Jordan Perkins, who only had 14 points to his name in 30 minutes of basketball. Daniel Jokubaitis, who had 27 points in the semi, was held to nine while Eoin Quigley ended up fouling out.Steel had 19 points of his down.
Coming down the stretch, the power of Mitchell was evident inside as he finished with 20 points. Jossell took his tally to 31 to seal the MVP award while Cairns ended with 12, four three-pointers.
Warriors simply couldn’t match the brilliance of Ballincollig.
L Jossell 31, L Mitchell 20, J Steel 19, K Cairns 12, A O'Sullivan 10.
I Hunte 22, J Perkins 14, P Fleming 14, D Jokubaitis 9.
A O’Sullivan, J Steel, L Jossell, D O’Herlihy, A Rodriguez, C O’Sullivan, R O’Sullivan, C Blount, L O’Sullivan, D Corkery, L Mitchell, K Cairns.
I Hunte, J Perkins, O Michalczuk, J Friel, J Fernane, D Bowler, K Crowe, P Fleming, D Jokubaitis, S Bowler, C Sullivan, E Quigley.
E Perry (Dublin), M Nazimek (Dublin), L Cassidy (Dublin).
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