Senior football title race gets set for the off
Date Published: {J}
MOYCULLEN basketballers went into their Cup clash with Hoops with genuine aspirations for a first win of the season. Up until the previous weekend, Hoops, like Moycullen, had lost all their games.
But the return of Joey Haastrup and Eoin Chubb from injury and the addition of Jason Goldrick had turned things around for them in Cork against double winners from last season, Blue Demons and they came to Galway brimful of confidence on the back of an impressive victory.
In a thrilling contest, in front of another bumper crowd, Moycullen showed tremendous spirit to lead by seven going into the fourth quarter but Hoops finally found some backup from the outside for their ‘man mountain close to the hoop, 6’ 9’’, 350lb Carlton Aaron and four three pointers helped them to an 81-73 victory.
The bare statistics will show another defeat for Moycullen but there was a lot to take from the contest and they will feel they are slowly edging towards a first victory in the Superleague.
UCD/Marian from Dublin provide the next opposition on Saturday at 6pm in the Kingfisher NUIG.
The match began with Moycullen opening with six points from John Cunningham and a three from Cian Nihill. This was matched by nine points from Carlton Aaron and it was immediately apparent that it was going to be a long night for the Moycullen defence attempting to deal with him.
With his size and good hands, Hoops had the luxury of being able to throw any sort of pass in his direction which he could control before clearing space for an easy finish around the hoop. Moycullen’s policy of fronting him and double teaming on release of the pass was sound in principal but almost totally ineffective in practice as Aaron contributed 15 of Hoops’ 17 first quarter points.
However, Moycullen were able to exploit Aaron’s lack of mobility by pushing the pace and further threes from Nihill and the impressive Dylan Cunningham along with a pair of Nate Fritsch baskets saw the home team edge ahead after the first quarter, 19-17.
The second quarter followed a similar pattern to the first. Aaron was unstoppable for the visitors inside while Moycullen spread their scoring well to match the Hoops output. Threes from Mike Dowd and Fritsch pushed the hosts ahead but Phil Taylor responded for Hoops as the contest ebbed and flowed.
Nihill and Fritsch shared the offensive load for Moycullen while late Joey Haastrup and Taylor scores brought the visitors “non-Aaron” score total to nine points. The quarter ended with the contest tied at 35-35.
The third quarter has been a real problem for Moycullen all season but this time they came out determined to reverse the trend. Keeping the pace of the game up, they made Aaron work up and down the court and this appeared to work to some degree as, for the first time in the game, he began to show tiredness.
Successive threes from Nihill, Dowd and Fritsch saw Moycullen open a five point lead as their offense flowed smoothly. With Aaron looking tired, Hoops hung in through baskets from Goldrick, Haastrup, Vujanic and Eoin Chubb but Moycullen were on their best run of the game and Dylan Cunningham, James Loughnane, Puff Summers and Fritsch all scored to stretch the lead to seven, 61-54 as the quarter ended.
An early Dowd three stretched the lead to 10 early in the fourth before Aaron went to work again. He narrowed the gap to six points with a lay-up and a pair of free throws. Up to this point, Moycullen had done a superb job in limiting Hoops to just a single three pointer. However, suddenly, Hoops found some holes as Joey Haastrup connected on a pair of threes to level the game at 64 each.
Dylan Cunningham scored for Moycullen only for Aaron to hit a pair of scores and give his team the lead. A John Cunningham layup off a super Fritsch assist levelled the scores again as the clock ran down to the last three minutes.
Aaron and Nihill then swapped baskets before Haastrup hit his third three of the quarter. When Moycullen turned the ball over on the next possession, Phil Taylor went down the other end and nailed a super three over good Moycullen defence.
The game was now up. Moycullen fouled to stop the clock but it was too late. The visitors advanced to the next round of the cup while the hosts will reflect on a game that could (and arguably should) have been won.
Coach Enda Byrt will look at this as a game that slipped away. Faced with the task of limiting Aaron and Taylor, despite the massive return from Aaron, he will feel that the team did a job that put them in a position to win, but Moycullen failed to close it out.
Credit must go to Hoops and Joey Haastrup in particular as they knocked down the key three pointers in the fourth which anyone watching the previous three quarters would have found difficult to predict. However, Moycullen will be disappointed that, from a winning position, they lost concentration and confidence and allowed the chink of light that Hoops needed.