Old Bawn CS reach All-Ireland League semis

By Stephen Leonard

OLD BAWN Community School have reached the All-Ireland Under 16 Schools Basketball League semi finals following wins over Colaiste Lorcain Castledermot and Sligo Grammar School at home.

Having beaten Larkin College in the Eastern Regional Finals back in December, the Tallaght side were looking to capitalise on home advantage for the next phase.

Colaiste Lorcain were first up for the homeside who started well with a jump shot from Evan Carey, followed by baskets from Okoku Ogbe and Captain Adhan Bolger, that helped them into a 12 -8 lead by the close of the first quarter.

And some great second quarter rebounding by Dera Disu and Craig Burke saw them extend that advantage to eight points by half time recess.

In the second half the team stepped up their defence which together with baskets from Abraham Falomo, Evan and Aodhan helped see them to a 51-38 win.

With Colaiste Lorcain having beaten Sligo Grammar School, Old Bawn just needed to beat the latter to progress, yet they trailed 19-18 after a tight first quarter.

Still they managed to turned that around to carve out a ten-point lead by the break although Sligo managed to halve that deficit in the third quarter.

With two quick baskets from Bolger and some great defence and rebounding, the Tallaght side pushed on and eventually ran out 66-38 point winners.

They will now continue on to play Colaiste an Coiribe on Thursday, February 2 in the National Basketball Arena.