Two from two for Templeogue

Two from two for Templeogue

By Stephen Leonard

TEMPLEOGUE made it two wins from as many outings in the top ranks of Men’s Basketball after they produced a late onslaught to beat Pyrobel Killester 82-74 in the Oblate Hall on Sunday.

Down by seven points with less than four minutes remaining, Mark Keenan’s side hit four three-pointers in a row as they outscored their opponents 17-2 in that final period.

Templeogues Jason Killeen 06 October 2016

It was a jaw-dropping close to an otherwise tight match that saw the two sides level at the close of the first quarter and only a solitary point separate them at the halftime recess.

The recent arrival of Lawrence ‘Puff’ Summers was a huge boost to this Templeogue team especially in the wake of the departure of point guard Sean Flood to the US, and he registered an important three pointer in the fourth quarter.

Looking back on the win, Templeogue coach Keenan admitted “It was very even before halftime. We were tied at 17-17 by the end of the first quarter and then they went 34-33 up at halftime.

“Baoloch [Morrison] got a buzzer beater and that three-pointer from a long wayout gave us that bit of momentum heading into the second half. There was a feel good factor in the team.

“Both defensives were on top in that half and scoring was not plentiful. The two defences managed to disrupt much of the attack.

“But they managed to push it out to seven points and it didn’t look good with about three and half minutes left in the match.

“I felt we needed some kind of spark offensively. It was a low scoring first half but in the second half [Killester’s] Jermaine Turner got motoring and we found it very hard to stop him.

“But we made the crucial blocks when we needed to at the end and Neil [Randolph] got open three times from distance and scored while Stephen James hit the first three-pointer, so we got four three-pointers in a row and that was huge” he said.

Next up for the team will be the short trip to Coláiste Éanna on Saturday when they will face off against near neighbours Comm-ercial.ie Eanna who are still in search of their first win of the campaign.

The Rathfarnham side lost 57-84 to Men’s Super League joint leaders Griffith Swords Thunder.

While the hosts were looking for their first win of the new campaign, Swords were aiming to make it two from two.

The northsiders were nine points up at the break and managed to maintain that momentum with a nice spread of scoring that saw Alex Calvexe bag 15, Justin Goldsborough 12 while Corey Baltimore and Jose Maria Gil Narbon each hit 10.

Luke Thompson chalked up 23 points for Eanna while Diego Salazar and Neil Lynch combined for 18, but it was not enough to counter their opponents.

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