“We did have some flashes of good play, but not many”
By Stephen Leonard
GRIFFITH College Templeogue Head Coach Mark Keenan admitted his side did not hit their potential despite battling back to see off C&S Neptune 78-75 for a place in this season’s Hula Hoops Pat Duffy National Cup decider.
The two-time winners of the competition found themselves nine points down early in the fourth quarter, but summoned up a huge late surge that was sparked by a massive three-pointer from Neil Randolph and fuelled with excellent work by Jason Killeen at both ends of the court.
Griffith College Templeogue head coach Mark Keenan gives a team talk
“A lot of semi finals can tend to be horrible games” said Keenan. “We did have some flashes of good play, but not many of them. Both sides had a lot of misses so it was not a fantastic game.
“We know we can play a lot better, but I think the thing was that we hung in there even though we didn’t play particularly great.
“We were seven points down at the end of the third quarter and then they got another basket at the start of the fourth to go nine points up. It was not the ideal position to be in especially when you feel that things are just not going your way.
“But Kris [Arcilla] hit a big three to get it back to six and then it became a four point game.
“I felt if we could just get in front, it would really upset them and with about two and half minutes to go, Neil hit a dagger of a three to put us one up.
“Jason [Killeen] also had a big final two minutes and hit six big points for us to go five up and that helped really settle us” he said.
The victory sets Templeogue up for a clash with neighbouring rivals DBS Éanna in the final later this month and Keenan hopes that experience at this stage of the competition can work to his side’s advantage.
Indeed, while this will be Éanna’s first ever appearance in the National Cup showpiece, Temple-ogue can look forward to lining out in their third final in four years.
“We’ll be drawing on all that experience having been there before and knowing what it’s like, the crowd and the hype, just being able to manage that” said Keenan who was impressed at how their opponents reached the final.
“For them to go to Cork and beat Tralee with a great second half performance, having lost to them just the week before, shows you what a good team they are.”
While the Reds sit three points behind Éanna in the Super League having played a game more, they did beat their neighbours 101-87 in their only meeting so far this season.
And they will be hoping to preserve their league titles ambitions when they travel to Kerry this weekend to take on Killorglin.
TAGS sports
