Dominos Mens Super League R20

Killester 58 Garvey’s

Tralee Warriors 72

Garvey’s Tralee Warriors gave their top four playoff hopes and their team morale a huge boost with an extraordinary 72-58 win over Killester at the IWA in Clontarf on Saturday night. The extraordinary part was that they trailed one of the form teams in the League by 10 going into the final quarter and a road win looked most unlikely. However, the Warriors conjured up an astonishing 26-2 final quarter to completely upend the game late on and seal a priceless win, their third this season against Killester, who were unbeaten in their last 10 League games.

Killester bossed the early exchanges with Robert Braswell in particular causing the Warriors problems posting half of the hosts 14 points in the first five minutes to give them an 8 point lead. Warriors response came from captain Eoin Quigley and a major effort from Daniel Jokubaitis and when Cian Sullivan and Steven Bowler opened their accounts the gap was down to 4. Braswell, Farouq Raheem and former Warrior Paul Dick combined to fire Killester’s tally out to 21 but a late lay up from Oisin Kerlin cut the advantage to 21-12 at quarter time.

When Killester extended their lead early in the second through Braswell and Dick, Warriors quickly switched from man to man to a zone defence and it paid immediate dividends as they shut out the hosts while adding an unanswered 14 points through Iggy Hunte with a hat trick, Jordan Perkins with a double and one each from Sullivan and Jokubaitis prompting a Killester timeout. Free throws from both Jokubaitis and Padraig Fleming helped edge Warriors 29-28 up late in the quarter but Killester regathered their composure to see Paul Dick and Braswell in range and Josh Wilson hit his first score of the game to put the hosts 32-30 up at half time.     

Killester made by far the better start to the second half and quickly added to their half time lead going 44-34 up midway through the third. Baptiste Chazelas, Paul Dick, a major from Wilson and a 7 point volley from Braswell were in range for the home side and despite scores from Bowler, Quigley, Hunte and Perkins, Warriors were still 11 down with 5 minutes left in the quarter. The Tralee side struck for a quickfire 8 points through Sullivan, Perkins and a double from Jokubaitis but another Wilson three pointer along with Braswell converting from the line from an unsportsmanlike call kept Killester 56-46 ahead at the end of the third.

It was a huge ask for Warriors to turn the contest around in the fourth but when Quigley and Perkins both dropped in major scores the comeback was suddenly on. A minute later Jokubaitis followed suit and when Perkins pulled up with a two point jumper and Hunte converted 4 for 4 from the line the Warriors had turned a 10 deficit into a 5 point lead. With Killester scoreless for quarter to that point, coach Jonathan Grenell called a timeout with 5’46’’ on the clock to stem the bleeding. Out of the break, Perkins and Jokubaitis were on the mark again for the visitors prompting another enforced timeout with 4’17’’ remaining. 

The Warriors simply dominated Killester in the final minutes continuing to find scores at will and by the time Jokubaitis, Perkins, Sullivan and Hunte all got in on the act the amazing turnaround was complete. Kaiwen Yang’s with his first touch gave Killester their only score of the quarter to save the hosts the ignominy of going scoreless for a full quarter of Super League basketball.

Scorers:

Killester: Robert Braswell 27, Josh Wilson 9, Paul Dick 8

Garvey’s Tralee Warriors: Jordan Perkins 18, Daniel Jokubaitis 16, Iggy Hunte 15

Next up for Warriors are three homes that they can aim to take maximum value from buoyed by the Killester result and with the Warriors faithful hoping to drive them on to finish in the top four of the League table. The first of these games is next Saturday night when they host Limerick Celtics, who come into the game on the back of a big win away to UCC Demons on Sunday and just one win behind Warriors, in the sole Super League game on the international weekend. Tip off at the Kerry Sports Academy is at 7.00pm.

Thanks to Liam Ryan for the images