Dominos Mens Super League National Cup R1
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors 72
Energywise Ireland Neptune 64
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors are through to a quarter final showdown with defending champions Killester after negotiating their way past Energywise Ireland Neptune in Round One of the Domino’s Mens Super League National Cup in a game played in front of a capacity crowd with a proper Cup basketball atmosphere at Castleisland Community Centre on Saturday night. A game-changing 22-9 third quarter from the Warriors looked to have settled the contest before the Tralee side had to resist a late Neptune rally to book their ticket to the last eight of the competition.
Neptune had the better of the early exchanges with their Americans Cameron Glove shooting a hat trick and Roti Ware landed twice from outside to fire the visitors into a 12-6 lead. The Warriors restored order with two Cian Sullivan baskets and one each from Iggy Hunte, Jordan Perkins and Olaf Michalczuk. Nil Sabata struck for a double when introduced for Neptune and Eoin Nelson added to put the Cork side 5 up but with the last play of the quarter Keelan Crowe locked in to swish from beyond the arc and cut the gap to 21-19.
The Warriors moved up a gear early in the second with a score each from Michalczuk and Dan Bowler before Daniel Jokubaitis took full advantage from Eoin Nelson’s three point foul to shoot the hosts 28-24 ahead. Neptune wrestled the lead back with Glover, Ware and Nelson combining for an unanswered 13 points to give the visitors a 9 point lead but Iggy Hunte then lit up with a stunning hat trick of scores and two from the line to pare the Neptune advantage back to 37-36 at half time.
Hunte carried his and the Warriors momentum from late in the second quarter into the third with another selection of quality finishes at the Neptune board and when Perkins got in on the act and Eoin Quigley fired down from distance the Tralee side were suddenly 49-39 ahead. Glover was proving to be a handful with ball in hand with scores from him from either side of the arc but at the other end Warriors had the Neptune rearguard on the back foot with a Bowler double and a basket each from Quigley and Perkins giving Warriors a decisive 58-46 lead at the end of the third.
Iggy Hunte’s relentless search for the Neptune basket continued with another double early in the fourth to stretch the Warriors advantage out to 16. However Neptune resurrected their Cup hopes when Glover, Ware and Nelson conjured up a 16 point volley of scores ending with a three pointer each from Glover and Ware that all but wiped out the lead and silenced the huge home crowd. Warriors’ only resistance came from a score each from Jokubaitis and a delightful finish from Michalczuk but importantly it kept the hosts 66-62 in front with three minutes on the clock. The Warriors managed to lift the siege late on closing out the Neptune shooters and allowing Perkins to add a pull up two point effort, and Hunte with a game high 29 points, to deliver the game winning points at the other end and see out the 72-64 win.
Scorers:
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors: Iggy Hunte 29, Jordan Perkins 10, Daniel Jokubaitis 9
Energywise Ireland Neptune: Cameron Glover 25, Roti Ware 19, Eoin Nelson 9
The win sets up a home quarter final for the Warriors as they take on Killester over the first weekend in December. As luck would have it the sides will have a trial run for that game when they meet in Tralee in the regular Super League two weeks before on Saturday 22nd November. Next up for the Warriors is a double header of away fixtures that sees them travel to the MTU Arena in Cork to take on Ballincollig next Friday the 14th with tip off at 8.15pm and then on Sunday 16th they make the long journey to the northwest to face EJ Sligo All Stars in the Mercy College at 3.00pm.
Thanks to Liam Ryan for the images