Coláiste Éanna crowned U16 schools basketball champions

IT WAS all smiles for Coláiste Éanna who were crowned the 2023/24 All-Ireland Under 16A Boys Schools Cup champions after they recorded a 69-48 victory over St Malachy’s, Belfast in Monday’s final in the National Basketball Arena.

It did not take long for the Ballyroan school to take a firm hold on this decider as Harry Lynch, Chisom Chime and MVP, Karl Walsh, all struck from beyond the arc to help propel them into a 16-point advantage by the end of the opening quarter.

Adam McCarthy and Augustine Farrell were also proving a handful down the lane for Malachy’s who managed to keep themselves in it with buckets from Layden O’Neill and Cormac Trainor along with a sublime three-pointer from Jude O’Carroll.

Éanna pushed their lead out to 20 by the end of, what was a much tighter second quarter.

Trainor’s bucket for the Belfast side was answered by a three-pointer from Chime before Mark Burns of St Malachy’s and Éanna’s Karl Walsh exchanged three-pointers.

Adrian Fulton’s side were finding it difficult to make in-roads into Eanna’s advantage and their cause was not helped when Farrell drained a three just before the half-time buzzer.

St Malachy’s produced a third-quarter surge that hauled them back to within 10 points of their opponents, Burns leading the charge with some great drives down the lane, while O’Neill served up some timely baskets.

Yet a three-pointer by Farrell sparked Éanna back into life and when Lynch followed that up with four from the free-throw line, the Dubliners were back in control.

That grip was tightened early in the fourth when Walsh and Farrell produced a clinical display from outside the arc and Chime, McCarthy and Lynch all worked scores from the inside.

“This hasn’t been a one-year thing. We’ve been working on this for the last three-years” said Coláiste Éanna head coach Hillary Netsiyanwa.

“We were unlucky last year, but the lads had that determination to come back this year and really pull through.

“That showed in the second half when Malachy’s came out with a better defence and stopped us a little bit, but the experience of the likes of Adam McCarthy, Augustine Farrell, Karl Walsh, Harry Lynch really carried us over.”