Keenan’s men are pipped to Champs’ Trophy in thriller

TEMPLEOGUE fell agonisingly short of adding the Men’s Champions Trophy to the Super League crown they won last month after they were pipped 74-73 in overtime by Garvey’s Tralee Warriors in the final in Letterkenny on Sunday.

Having beaten Tralee by three points to secure the league title, Mark Keenan’s men were prepared for a huge challenge by their Kerry opponents, who, no doubt, had revenge on their mind.

Jason Killeen turned in a big performance for the Dubliners who were seconds away from the title only to see Kieran Donaghy square the match at 66-66 with a late late basket that forced the game into extra time.

Even then Templeogue were three points up with less than eight seconds remaining when Trae Pemberton went to the line.

And while he missed his attempt, Donaghy was on hand to scoop up the rebound and feed him for another attempt that he planted to again level the match after which Donaghy, himself, tagged on a free throw to clinch it for his side.

It was a heart-breaking finish for Templeogue, and coach Keenan, who said: “We should have closed the game out both at the end of regu-lation time and overtime.

“We were up for the game, there’s no question about that. It was just the way things worked out down the stretch.

“We missed key shots and they made key shots. There were one or two big calls that didn’t go our way and they got the rub of green at the right time, but congratulations to them.

“We were disappointed to lose it, but afterwards, in the dressing room, we had the consolation of having won the league. It’s been a great season for the team,” he told The Echo

Templeogue will begin preparations for the 2017/18 campaign in August and will be without the services of Shooting Guard Paul Cummins who played his last match for the team at the weekend while Ronan McLoughlin is reportedly stepping down from Super League level.