Curtain comes down on another great year for local men's basketball in Cork

The curtain recently came down on the Cork County Basketball leagues with another successful season and a full fixture schedule completed.

It was fitting at the season would end with Cork winning the inter-county U17 All-Ireland championship that was hosted in Galway.

In the first pool game Cork defeated the North East Area Board by 30 points but in the next game the Leesider’s were brought back to earth as they went down to a crack Dublin team who inflicted a huge 28 point defeat on them.

Conor Caroll and Alex Jaxewisc top scored with 9pts each but Cork lost Ballincollig’s ace shooter Daithi Murphy through injury who sadly missed the remaining games in the championship.

The last group game saw Cork defeat Clare by a comfortable margin that set up a s semi- final against Kerry.

In a thrilling game Cork looked to have problems when they trailed by 6 points with four minutes remaining.

The closing minutes were frantic but Oscar McMahon hit the winning free throws with 17 seconds left on the clock that ensured a Cork victory 48-46.

In the final Cork were pitted against Dublin who had beaten them by 28 points earlier in the day.

Credit to Cork and coach Dave Lyons they changed their game plan that ensured they were ready to match up to the championship favourites.

From tip off Cork showed tremendous intensity at both ends of the court and Dublin had few answers as they ran impressive 11 point winners.

To turn around a 28 point pool loss to an 11 point win was a magnificent achievement and once again Conor Carroll whose mother Sinead was a former Irish underage International led the scoring on 15 points followed by Pablo O’ Reagan on 8 points.

It was an incredible achievement for players and their coaching staff and Cork County Board chairman Willie McCarthy praised all concerned.

“In fairness it was an incredible turnaround to defeat this crack Dublin team in the final and well done to Dave Lyons for the terrific job he done in getting the lads up for the final,” said McCarthy.

In a season where the Cork County Board led the way with numerous national tournaments in all grades McCarthy took time to thank his fellow officers for a job well done.

“Running tournaments takes lots of work and we are very lucky in Cork that we have so many committed officers on the board that ensure things run smoothly from start to finish,” added Willie.

This is the final Cork basketball column of the season and I would like to personally thank Jim O’Sullivan whose willingness to get the relevant scoresheets to me on an weekly basis is crucial to its success.

Have a good and happy summer and many thanks to the clubs who consistently make the scoresheets easy to read.