Superleague team lose in Killorglin

By moycullenbasketball on 24/10/2021

Killorglin 90 (45)

Moycullen 74 (43)

Despite a hot shooting start and an early lead on the road in Kerry, Moycullen were not able to overcome a Killorglin outfit boasting four professional overseas players that in the end were the difference makers.

The final result of 90 to 74 and a 16 point deficit by no means reflected what was generally a tight contest, led by the visitors from Galway at the end of the first quarter and in which there were only two points separating the sides at half time.

An influential finish to the second quarter and start to the third for the home team, in front of a capacity crowd in Killorglin, was the winning of the game. Led by the hugely impressive duo of American Allan Thomas and Spaniard Lorenzo Medina, Killorglin outscored Moycullen by double digits over a five minute period and took control of the game that they were eventually to see out in an efficient manner.

“We started the game well I think but in fairness to Killorglin, they have so many scoring options, we struggled to keep pace with their firepower at times,” said Moycullen forward Josh Marvesley, who has had an excellent start to the young season and finished Saturday night’s game with 15 points.

“It is an enjoyable but tough place to play down here and when they had their run either side of half time their home crowd were into it and we never fully recovered,” said Marvesley.

Moycullen certainly did not appear intimidated in the early going as some fine offensive movement was rewarded with accurate shooting by Kyle Cunningham, Grant Olsson and Paul Kelly.

An aggressive switching defensive effort also limited Killorglin’s options at the other end and they had only three players finds scores until late in the first quarter, Thomas, Medina and Medina’s Spanish compatriot Arriaga Alonso.

The promising start had the visitors establish a nine point lead mid way through the second quarter before Killorglin made what was to be defining run of the game. A better spread of scorers from Killorglin and a brief shooting cold spell for Moycullen saw that nine point lead disappear and MOycullen enter the half time break trailing by two.

way from it but we had patches where I think we played really well.”
Moycullen head coach John Cunningham.

The second half picked up where the first left off and Killorglin pressed home their advantage with admirable ruthlessness.Although Niall Bree, Eoghan Kelly and Dylan Cunningham battled well for Moycullen and chipped in some timely scores, the momentum was with the home team in front of their fans.

Killorglin entered the fourth quarter up by eight points, reflecting a 17 point turnaround from the apex of Moycullen’s lead mid-way through the second quarter.

Moycullen head coach John Cunningham rightly threw caution to the wind as the fourth quarter neared its end and Moycullen began to press on both ends of the court, looking for defensive turnovers and quicker scores on offence.
Killorglin were well able to handle the change in tempo however and exploited the inevitable gaps that arose. The Kingdom club were in the end deserving of their 16 point win even if the final gap between the team was a harsh result for the Moycullen men to accept after a gallant display on the road.

“The scoreline is what is, there is not getting away from it but we had patches where I think we played really well,” said Moycullen head coach John Cunningham.

“Killorglin are an excellent team and their professional players in particular are a real handful to match up with across the court. They played like pros tonight and while we gave them a good battle, they ultimately had the scoring capability to put together the run around half time that was the winning of the game for them.”

Moycullen have received a bye in the first round of the National Cup, meaning they have a weekend to come without any game and can therefore begin preparation early for their next game, at home in the NUIG Sports Arena against Ballincollig at 3pm on Sunday 7 November.

“We’ll look forward now to having a really strong couple of weeks of practice and getting a good performance against Ballincollig on 7 November in front of our own home crowd,” said coach Cunningham.

Moycullen scorers: Grant Olsson 22, Kyle Cunningham 17, Josh Marvesley 15, Paul Kelly 8, Marko Babic 6, Eoghan Kelly 5, Dylan Cunningham 2, James Lyons, Joseph Tummon, Niall Bree