Heartbreak for Titans in Men's Division One League final

There was also disappointment for the club earlier in the day when their U-18 Boys lost to Oblates of Dublin in the first-ever U-18 National league final; but it wasn't all doom and gloom, as the city side claimed their own league and cup double at U-20 level when retaining their league title on Friday night.

Men's Division One League final

Limerick Sport Eagles 82

Titans 63

Titans made a nightmare start, being pulled for a foul on the jump-off to hand Eagles immediate possession, but the Limerick side didn't realise they were operating off a 14-second offence, and were pulled for a shot-clock violation.

It gave Titans a lift, but things soon turned sour for the city side, as they just couldn't put the ball through the hoop as the Arena's rings lived up to their notorious reputation.

They missed shot after shot from open play, and things weren't any better from the free-throw line, Titans missing their first seven free-throws before Viktor Tashev finally got one to drop with just under four minutes remaining.

Declan Gbingie had got them off the mark with 4.37 left in the quarter, but Eagles had 12 points on the board at that stage, with Alex Carlisle doing most of the damage - he finished the quarter with 13 points.

However, for all that was going wrong for Titans, there were plenty of positives as well: they were dominating the boards, bullying the cup champions on offensive rebounds, and as the quarter went on, they grew into the game.

Head coach Erin Bracken called an early timeout, and wasn't afraid to go to her bench, with nine players seeing the court in the opening quarter, and slowly they began to eat into the Eagles lead, finishing the quarter with a 6-0 run, Umar Rashid's buzzer-beating fade-away 2-pointer cutting the Eagles lead to 19-11.

Both sides gave up a couple of sloppy turnovers early in the second quarter before Sean Ryan hit the game's first 3-pointer, but Umar Rashid replied immediately, going 2-for-2 from the free-throw line to keep his side in touch.

Eagles then threatened to run away with it, going on a 7-0 run to lead 27-13 just short of the half-way mark in the quarter.

Titans needed to find a response of risk been fatally cut adrift, and a response is exactly what they found, going on a 10-2 run to get back to within six points of Eagles. However, getting it to 29-23 took a chunk out of them, and Eagles finished the quarter with a 7-2 scoring burst to lead 36-25 at half-time, with Carlisle having caused absolute carnage, scoring 22 points in the half.

Titans needed a big third quarter, but instead it came from Eagles, and Titans began to be guilty of being too passive in both offence and defence.

Eagles opened with a 6-2 run, and denied Titans any kind of momentum: both Joseph Coughlan and Rachid hit 3-pointers for Titans, but Carlisle responded with one from outside the arc himself, and Eagles threw in three more 3-pointers before the end of the quarter to kill the Titans challenge, which looked back on track after they went on a 7-2 run out of a time-out midway through the quarter, with Rashid accounting for that Titans tally.

Eagles were leading 64-24, and hit the first five points of the final quarter to make the final 10 minutes nothing more than a formality.

Titans kept working, with Tashev and Coughlan catching the eye, and the Galway side managed a defiant 7-0 run early in the quarter. That just sparked Eagles into action again, with Carlisle continuing to pour in the points for the side from the Treaty City - he would finish the game with an astonishing 41 points, the clear game MVP as Eagles booked their spot in next year's Super League.

Titans: J Coughlan (5), F Igbokwe (8), U Rachid (21), D Gbinigie (6), M Sweeney, V Tashev (13), B Kelly, N Gbinigie (4), B Powell, C McCormack (3), E Coughlan (3).

U-20 Men's League final

Templeogue 46

Titans 78

The weekend got off to a perfect start for Titans, as their U-20 men completed the league and cup double on Friday night when retaining their league title with a dominant display against Templeogue.

The game was as good as over by half-time, with Titans leading 38-18, and they never let-up in the second-half as they won all four quarters: 22-10, 16-8, 20-14, and 20-14.

The westerners were in control from the jump-off, going on a 12-0 run before Templeogue - the designated home team - finally got off the mark just past the half-way mark in that opening quarter, back-to-back buckets seeing the Dublin side trailing 14-6 with 3.44 left in the quarter. That would be as close as they would get to Titans for the rest of the game.

Declan Gbinigie threw in nine points for Titans in that opening quarter on his way to claiming the MVP award: the medical student finished with 22 points to his name.

He saw all 10 minutes in that opening quarter, as did younger brother, Nathan, and Viktor Tashev, Titans clearly intent on putting this one to bed as soon as possible, with that trio combining for nine points in a low scoring second-quarter.

The sides went score-for-score early in the third, Titans going up through the gears when needed, and they used their bench rotation to good effect, with Michael Smyth and Luka Mitchell combining for nine points in that quarter as Titans moved 26 points clear, leading 58-32 heading into the final quarter.

It was just a matter of seeing out that final 10 minutes by Titans, and they continued to pile on the scores as well, Mitchell hitting seven points in the quarter, and they finished the game in style, with Mitchell and Smyth both throwing in 3-pointers as they clinched the double.

“It feels great, it is something we’ve had our eyes on since the start of the season," Declan Gbinigie said after the game when asked abut completing the league and cup double.

"We knew we wanted to come out and show what we can do. We’ve worked so hard over the years, last year we won the league, so to go back-to-back in the league and go get the double as well. I think everybody showed up on the day, it was a great team performance and we were able to pull off a win.”

Titans: S Owede (4), D Gbinigie (22), V Tashev (5), F Igbokwe (9), N Gbinigie (8), M Smyth (7), L Mitchell (19), W Poland, R Grebstels.

U-18 Boys' League final

Oblates 92

Titans 68

Titans' dreams of being crowned the country's first-ever U-18 national league champions ended in disappointment on Saturday morning as they came off second best against an Oblates side that stamped their authority on the game with a blistering 28-14 opening quarter.

Titans' weren't helped by the loss of starter Noah Mung’oma Webb to injury just 150 seconds into the action, and looked to have been rocked by that loss as Oblates raced into a big lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Augustine Farrell - who finished with 27 points in an MVP display - had them 23-8 ahead before Titans found some offence to cut the deficit marginally.

Farrell continued where he left off at the start of the second quarter with a deep three, but Nathan Gbinigie led by example as the Titans captain responded with back-to-back baskets to make it an 11-point game, 31-20.

Oblates took over again, and pushed the lead out to 15 points at 39-24, but Titans dug in and had it back to a 10-point deficit at half-time, trailing 43-33.

Titans needed as big third quarter, but instead it came from the Dublin side, who went on a 10-2 run to lead 53-35 two and a half minutes in.

They had the bit between their teeth now, and a three from Joaquin Pahinag in the dying seconds gave them an insurmountable 74-50 advantage heading into the final quarter; and Oblates completed the job in the final quarter, an 18-18 split seeing them claim a 24-point win.

Titans: N Mung’oma Webb, M Cunningham Smyth (15), P Murray (3), D Dickson (3), N Gbinigie (15), F Osabuohien (16), L O’Conaola Arevalo, E Miltinis (14), R Claus (0), R Tossenou, C Sweeney (2), D O’Neill.