Maree 70
UCD-Marian 57

MAREE U-20 men’s basketballers made history when claiming the National Cup for the first time ever by overcoming reigning champions UCD-Marian last Saturday night in the National Basketball Arena,Tallaght.

Both sets of supporters were on the edge of their seats for most of a titanic battle, but it was the Galway contingent that hit the N6 the happier, after a tough, tense encounter. Maree’s win adds to the 2009 Under 18 Men’s triumph and to the 2008 Under 18 Men’s and Women’s double.

Captain David Hansberry lifted the Cup and Liam Conroy, the game’s high scorer with 21 points, took the MVP award. Maree’s route to the final started with a successful warm-up defence of the Cork Under 20 Open Tournament in September, when they won all five games.
National Cup wins followed over Queens, Limerick Lakers and Killester. UCD-Marian, who had beaten Maree by an agonising one point in the 2009 decider, reached this year’s final through defeats of St Vincent’s, Éanna and Belfast Star. The stage was set for a tough re-match.

The first quarter was tense, nervous and physical. UCD-Marian jumped into a 5-0 lead, and were controlling the rebounds at both ends of the court. In addition, they were fast-breaking for fun, and Maree were hanging on.

UCD-Marian confounded expectations by playing a man-to-man defense, and it was clear that Maree’s trademark 3-2 defense was a surprise to the Dubliners, though they were transitioning fast enough to prevent it bother them initially.

Cathal Finn hit six for UCD and was their main threat, finishing the game with 16 points. Eventually, after a series of rushed shots, Maree clawed their way onto the scoreboard through a Colm O’Hagan lay-up. A free throw from Liam Conroy was followed by an O’Hagan three after a huge Ciarán Harte rebound, and the mini-crisis was over.

The 3-2 defense kicked in, with George Rahmani settling to the task of containing Daniel James in particular. At the end of the first quarter, Maree had recovered, a little improbably, to share the spoils 11-11, with O’Hagan good for seven and David Hansberry for three.

In the second quarter, Maree’s offense featured three threes, two from Conroy and one from Ken Hansberry. UCD-Marian were still marginally the better rebounding team, and Maree’s help-and-recover defense was coughing up some open outside shots, through back-door cuts and unsuccessful double-teams.

But gradually, Maree were settling to the task. Con Crowley was giving the James twins a torrid time, and he set the tone for the Maree defense for the rest of the game – UCD would get no more cheap scores, and every drive and shot would be contested.

A sweet exchange of passes between the Hansberry brothers also produced a good inside basket, and showed the Maree players that, despite their height advantage, UCD could be taken on in the paint. A tense half ended with Maree shading it 29-28. Encouragingly, no Maree player was on more than two fouls, whereas the Dubliners had two players on three apiece.
 

For more read page 49 of this week's City Tribune.