Templeogue U14s crowned All-Ireland champs
TEMPLEOGUE Basketball Club’s Under 14 Boys team captured the All-Ireland Club Champion- ship crown after an excit-ing campaign in Gormanston last weekend.
Competing in the Premier League against the winners of all the leagues around Ireland this was a step-up for the Templeogue boys who had carded a Dublin county double this year.
Templeogue Basketball Club's Under 14 Boys team added the All-Ireland Club Championship title to the Dublin League and Cup honours they won this season after a successful tournament in Gormanston.
Finishing runners-up in their group, Templeogue continued on to beat Titans of Galway in the semi finals before exacting revenge on Corrib for their only loss in the pool stages when the two met again in the final.
Templeogue opened their campaign with a 47-26 point victory over Ballincollig from Cork, with Daniel Carberry accounting for 22.
This was followed up with a 55-27 triumph over Mucko Lakers from Carrigmacross against whom Jack Finn netted 11 with Carberry just one less.
Yet against Corrib in their final game of the day, Templeogue struggled from the tip with some fast breaks and shipping a number of three-pointers at critical times, eventually losing out 37-48.
Head coach, Jay Fazande spent Saturday night working on tactics for the semi-final against Titans and it paid off, the Dublin champions storming into a 32-15 lead by half time.
They maintained that intensity throughout the second half to win out 46-30 with Carberry again leading their charge with 15 to help set them up for another encounter with Corrib.
Again it was the Galway side who were quicker out of the blocks finishing the first quarter 12-7 up.
Team captains Jacob Fazande and Jack Finn started the second quarter and immediately began to cut the deficit as well as Corrib’s supply of fast breaks and three pointers.
It was all square at 19 points apiece by the half-time break before Temple- ogue surged 13 points ahead in the third with back-to-back 3s by Finn along with baskets from Fazande and Carberry.
The scores continued to drop for Templeogue as they ran out 45-29 winners with Finn planting 12 and Carberry and Jack Wright emerging with nine points each.
