MAREE Basketball Club’s remarkable success at a national level continues. In the Men’s U20 National Cup Final on Saturday at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, before a cohort of colourful and noisy fans, Maree beat Killester 72-57 to complete a remarkable treble of U20 Cup wins.

This was the Galway club’s sixth National Cup win since 2008; in addition to the U20 Men’s hat-trick, they took the U18 Women’s title in 2008 and did an U18 Men’s double with wins in 2008 and 2009.
Saturday’s victory gave Captain Colm O’Hagan a record fifth underage National Cup title, while Ken Hansberry, fresh from his Galway Sports Star Basketball Player of the Year award, was MVP with 23 points and 26 rebounds. The win was also a great birthday present for coach John Finn. In the Under 18 Men’s Final, Maree lost out to Templeogue 69-49.

Maree 72
Killester 57

Maree’s way to the final included wins over Donegal Town, Éanna of Dublin and Galway neighbours, Moycullen. On the other side of the draw, Killester got past Dublin teams St Vincent’s and Tolka Rovers, and Derry’s North Starm and they also came into the game in rude health, as the only undefeated team in the U20 Dublin League.

Before the tip-off, it was evident that the bus-loads of blue and green Maree supporters were going to be more than a match for Killester’s famous orange army. The arena was a wall of sound as the contest began, with both teams in man-to-man defense.

Big Ken Hansberry grabbed the first basket, but Ciarán Roe replied for the Dublin Northsiders and Killester took a quick 10-6 lead. Each team was looking to play up-tempo basketball, fast-breaking at every opportunity.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.