.
Alan Cantwell reports on Garvey’s Tralee Warriors Men’s Super League victory in Tralee on Saturday night…
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors 84
Pyrobel Killester 72
Action from the game. Photo by Liam Ryan
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors made it seven wins in a row with victory over League rivals Pyrobel Killester in front of a packed Tralee Sports Complex on Saturday night.
The Warriors led at the end of all four quarters and put in a first half display full of offensive style and defensive guile worthy of serious League title contenders.
With UCD Marian succumbing to DCU Saints in a thrilling encounter in St. Vincent’s, it temporarily allowed the Tralee side to regain top spot on the Super League table for the first time since the end of October.
However UCD Marian returned to the head of affairs in the League with a win over UCC Demons on Sunday.
Continued below…
.
Royce Williams opened the scoring for Killester but it didn’t take long for Trae Pemberton to step into position and land the first of his three three pointers of the first quarter.
Filiberto and Williams added for the visitors but with Pemberton again on target from distance and Kieran Donaghy heralding his intentions for the contest with three consecutive scores, Darragh O’Hanlon also found the mark and the Warriors led 19-8.
Action from the game. Photo by Liam Ryan
Ciaran Roe, Filiberto and Williams kept Killester in touch but Pa McCarthy fired in a fine score to see the Warriors lead 23-14 at quarter time.
Killester cut the gap early in the second through Eoghan Kiernan and Ciaran Roe and despite Donaghy adding from inside and out, Roe chipped in with another two to leave just four between the sides.
However the Warriors seized the initiative with a score from Dusan Bogdanovic two Pemberton threes, and a buzzer beater three from Eoin Quigley brought the Tralee crowd to their feet as the hosts took an impressive 19 point lead to the long break.
Continued below…
.
Pemberton fired in two early scores in the third to put the Warriors 23 ahead and when he added his fourth three after Kieran O’Brien scored for Killester it looked like the game was slipping away from the visitors but scores from Williams, Roderigo, Kiernan and O’Brien either side of two Pemberton threes helped revive Killester’s hopes.
Royce Williams fired in from distance and when he followed up with three free throws he cut the Warriors lead to 10. Fergal O’Sullivan and Pemberton found their range either side of scores from Filiberto and O’Brien and the sides turned for the stretch with the Warriors leading 63-53.
Goran Pantovic got the Warriors off to the best possible start in the final chapter with a score followed by a trademark slam-dunk to push the hosts out to a lead of 14.
However Killester were far from done and three scores in a row from Williams and a three from Roe saw the gap down to just eight.
Fergal O’Sullivan then stepped into position to land a simply stunning three pointer and followed that with another score to stifle any late Killester comeback.
To their credit the Dublin side fought the fight to the end and three scores from Filiberto along with another from Roderigo kept Donaghy and Pemberton honest from the free throw line as Killester’s foul count caught up with them late on.
In the end the Warriors had 12 points to spare in a result that just about reflected the hosts dominance as well as the visitors resilience.
Scorers:
Warriors: Trae Pemberton 38, Kieran Donaghy 20, Fergal O’Sullivan 7
Pyrobel Killester: Royce Williams 21, Luis Filiberto Garcia Hoyos 14, Ciaran Roe 13
Next up for the Warriors is a date with Eanna in Rathfarnham on Saturday next with a 7.00pm tip off ahead of a potential Super League title showdown with UCD Marian in Belfield the following week.
