Mens U20s League R2
UCC Demons 82 Garvey’s Tralee Warriors 140
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors Mens U20s backed up their turnaround win over Rathmore Ravens on Friday night to make it two wins from two with an exhibition of shooting to outgun UCC Demons by 140-82 at the Mardyke Arena on Sunday and get their National League campaign off to the best possible start.
The Warriors travelled to Cork with just six players with a number of the squad out through injury but the players that went produced a stunning performance of shooting to close out the contest long before the final buzzer sounded. The Warriors flew out of the block to lead 20-7 midway through the opening quarter with Dave Lucid, Ryan Sheehy, Jamie Burke and Brayden Pierce all finding the Demons’ baskets with ease. Demons replied through Noah Eddins and Ryan Sheehan but it wasn’t until their top scorer on the day Adam Cox got in range that Demons made any real impact on the scoreboard, shooting their way to 25 by the end of the quarter. At the other end Warriors continued to score freely with Fionan Brosnan helping himself to 9 points and Lucid and Sheehy striking for majors to put the Tralee side 44-25 up at the end of the first.
Demons got to the pitch of the game in the second and made inroads into the Warriors lead with Cox hitting four in a row early. Sheehy replied immediately with a quickfire 7 points and when Burke added from distance the gap was back out to 20. Cox, Eddins and Luke Wolfe combined to keep the Demons in touch but scores from Burke, Liam Rahilly and a three from Pierce saw Warriors lead 64-52 at half time.
The Warriors best spell in the game came in the third quarter when they unleashed a barrage of scores to settle the contest by three quarter time. All six players were on the mark as they amassed a 40 point tally for the period while at the other end Demons looked to Eddins with two threes and Cox with a hat trick for their scores. The Warriors barrage continued as they hit six three pointers in the quarter with three from Sheehy and one each from Rahilly, Burke and Pierce in their fourteen scores from the field and a flawless 6 from 6 from the free throw line saw them 104-66 up going into the final quarter.
The Warriors offensive effort didn’t relent in the final quarter as Brosnan and Pierce were again on the mark early. Adam Cox continued to lead from the front for Demons and hit five scores in the period to bring his personal tally to a game high 40 points. However the Warriors saw out the 140-82 win in style with a late flurry of scores from Rahilly, Pierce, Brosnan, Lucid and the outstanding Sheehy who top scored for Warriors with 39.
Scorers:
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors: Ryan Sheehy 39, Jamie Burke 28, Brayden Pierce 25, Fionan Brosnan 25
UCC Demons: Adam Cox 40, Noad Eddins 18, Ryan Sheehan 14
Next up for the Warriors U20s is a trip to the Crescent College in Limerick to face Limerick Celtics on Sunday 16th November with tip off at 5.30pm.