Templeogue are back on track ahead of cup decider
By Stephen Leonard
TEMPLEOGUE got their Men’s Premier League campaign back on track with a resounding 84-59 point triumph over SSE Airtricity Moycullen on Saturday in the Oblate Hall.
The win comes the week before they bid to take the final step on the road to National Cup glory when they face GCD Swords Thunder in the decider.
And having suffered an 11-point loss to their northside rivals (their first of the season) in the league earlier in the month, Mark Keenan’s side were desperate to restore confidence in the approach to the cup final this Saturday in the National Basketball Arena.
“We wanted a good bounce-back after losing to Thunder the week before, and we got a great response” Keenan told The Echo.
“I was delighted with the way we came out of the blocks and got on top from the start.
“Now we need to take the confidence from that performance into the final on Saturday.
“We’re still mindful that Thunder are a quality team and we won’t be getting cocky.
“That game against Moycullen was a potentially tricky fixture, but everyone stepped up.
“Jason [Killeen] had a great first quarter, we had four guys on double figures and practically everyone scored, so we’re not just relying on the same two or three guys to do it for us” he pointed out.
The same evening that Templeogue were cruising past Moycullen, Swords suffered an 86-76 point loss to UCD Marian, consequently denying them the chance to move ahead of third place Pyrobel Killester in the Premier League table.
Yet Keenan is wary that that result could work either way for their Dublin rivals saying “that loss might make them more determined to bounce back after losing or it might have dented their confidence.
“I’m not going to read too much into that result. We’ll just be concentrating on ourselves and we know that we have to improve in certain areas” he insisted.
While Templeogue have done well to remain joint top of the table with defending champions UCC Demons given the heavy injury list with which they have had to cope, they will be hoping to have back some of their other big guns for Saturday night.
Indeed the likes of Michael Bonaparte, Paul Cummins and Conor Grace are in a race against time to prove their fitness ahead of the decider.
All three have been nursing various injuries, Grace having picked up his in their recent loss to Swords in the league.
Bonaparte has been one of the league’s top scorers this season and Keenan would love to have him on the court saying “even his presence alone would be a huge boost to the players.”
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