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U14 Girls T2
Tralee Imperials 35-18 St. Colman’s
U14 Team 2.
Our U14 Girls Team 2 continued their season on 8/12/21 at CBS The Green, where our opposition was St. Colman’s Flames.
The opening minutes of quarter 1 started well for Imperials. Naomi Osibodu, Caoilinn Culloo and Juliette Gleeson were winning defensive rebounds and offloading superbly. Maria Walsh at Point Guard was controlling the play brilliantly.
The Imperials dominance began to transfer to the scoreboard during the quarter. Juliette Gleeson found Maria Walsh in space, and Maria finished brilliantly for the opening basket of the game.
The same players were again involved in the next score, a great steal by Juliette, a strong run, and a great offload to Maria Walsh, with Maria again obliging.
Imperials followed up with a super team score, Naomi Osibodu found Penny Costello who offloaded to Caoilinn Culloo.
Caoilinn found Juliette Gleeson in space and Juliette finished from distance. Penny Costello added 1 from the Free Throw Line to give Imperials a 7-0 lead midway through the quarter.
With quarter 1 drawing to a close, Maria Walsh again found Juliette Gleeson who finished superbly. Caoilinn Culloo extended the Imperials lead in the closing minutes of the quarter with 2 brilliant baskets, after great work by Naomi Osibodu and Penny Costello.
Imperials started the 2nd quarter under real pressure from St Colman‘s Flames. The opposition got a number of scores on the board with Imperials made to work hard in defence.
With Grace Reilly involved in everything, Imperials began to get a foothold on the quarter. Niamh Fitzgibbon, Evelyn Moriarty and Amber Ryan all raised the intensity levels at this time. Strong running from Grace Reilly resulted in a superb basket.
Aoife O’Connell was competing strongly in defence, Aoife collected a defensive rebound, and with strong running finished with a great lay-up.
A great score to lift the Imperials team! As the quarter came to a close, Grace Reilly was again to the fore, a brilliant steal, strong run and superb finish. Imperials with a 19-7 lead at half time.
The 3rd quarter began well for Imperials. Caoilinn Culloo found Naomi Osibodu, with Naomi finishing from distance.
Juliette Gleeson again broke through the defensive guard to get to the basket. Juliette finished superbly to continue the rich vein of form she has shown in recent games. Imperials ran the bench again in quarter 3.
Katie Enright, Maria O’Connell and Abbey Stephenson all contributed to the Imperials ascendency. With the quarter drawing to a close, Grace Reilly and Juliette Gleeson were both on target for Imperials to give a Q3 score line of 27-13 to Imperials.
The Imperials defence was again on top in quarter 4. Great work from Clodagh Burke found Aoife O’Connell with Aoife finishing a long range effort. Grace Reilly and Maria Walsh both finished superbly to give Imperials a 33-18 lead going into the final minutes.
The final score of the game fell to Grace Reilly, a brilliant individual effort after a great steal. A great score and a brilliant performance from Grace! Imperials take the win on a scoreline of 35-18.
All Imperial players got game time and contributed to a great win. Brenda, Leanne and William look forward to getting back to training on Saturday, with the next game planned for 15/12/21.
Thanks as always to our Table Officials and Referees. A special thanks also to St Colman’s Flames for a sporting an enjoyable game.
Imperials Scorers
Grace Reilly 10
Juliette Gleeson 8
Maria Walsh 6
Caoilinn Culloo 4
Aoife O’Connell 4
Naomi Osibodu 2
Penny Costello 1
U16 Boys T1
Tralee Imperials 44-51 St. Mary’s
On 6/1/21 we hosted a very strong St Mary’s u16 team in our second county league game. In the first quarter our tenacious defense kept us in the game and with four players sharing the scoring we ended the first quarter down 10-14.
The pace increased in the second quarter and both teams hit some great scores. Ryne hit two ‘3s’ along with a few layups to help us go into halftime down just 4 points: 27-31.
Castleisland came out with serious intensity to start the third quarter and it was to the boys credit that we stayed in the game.
They showed great character and desire especially on defense with Sam and Sean Heaslip working their socks off, and Sean Óg rebounding strongly, we ended the quarter still only 4 points down 36-40.
Tomas started to find his scoring touch at this point and hit a ‘3’ to end a fabulous move. Fionnán was moving the ball very well and with Jamie and Tadgh making vital contributions we entered the fourth quarter with all to play for.
The final period was a tight affair and we had opportunities to take control but couldn’t capitalise on them. With just over a minute to go we were down just 2 points but a turnover led to a layup for the visitors.
We had to foul to stop the clock near the end and with Mary’s making their free throws the final scoreline read 44-51. This was a very tight game which could have gone either way. We will learn from this and improve because of it.
Well done to the boys who went toe to toe with the reigning county league champions and just came up short.
Top scorers:
Ryne Ybanez 17
Tomás Kennedy 11
Fionnán Ryan 6
U18 Boys
Tralee Imperials 64-36 St. Bridget’s
U20 Men
The Tralee Imperial team and coaches. Photo by Dermot Crean
Tralee Imperials 83-89 KCYMS
It was a local derby in the quarterfinal of the National Cup.
On Saturday 11th December we took on local rivals KCYMS in the National Cup 1/4 final in Tralee.
The visitors started quickly and we struggled to contain their transition offense. Aivaras Uosis at just 16 years old had 8 first quarter points to keep us within touching distance as we trailed 15-23 at the end of the first period.
Our lack of match practice was apparent at this stage as our opponents were much sharper.
Our defense was much improved in the second quarter and we managed to get into our flow on offense. Sean Pollman-Daamen was outstanding in this period and we trailed at half time 42-49.
We started the 3rd really well and got the lead down to just 3 but a combination of tiredness and foul trouble came against us and we fell further behind ending the quarter behind 63-75.
Dean Rusk and Tim Pollman-Daamen were getting into the game at this stage but KCYMS kept the scoreboard ticking over to extend their lead to 18 points with just 5 minutes to play. It was at this juncture that the boys showed tremendous character and drive.
With Aivaras, Sean and Zygi hitting some key buckets we managed to reduce the lead to 1 point with just over two minutes remaining.
Tim was unlucky to be fouled out when playing great defense and this was a huge turning point in the game. We had to put our opponents to the foul line in the dying moments which inflated their lead. The final score was 83-89.
The players couldn’t have given any more and the game could have gone either way. We are certainly very proud of them all. Well done to KCYMS and we wish them the best of luck in their semifinal against Marian of Dublin.
Top scorers for Imperials:
Sean Pollman-Daamen 34
Aivaras Uosis 17
Tim Pollman-Daamen 12
Zygi Kaletka 11
Monthly Training Fees
The monthly training fee can be paid via the Club Shop on ClubZap app. FYI December and January are treated as one month. Tralee Imperials BC will be taking a Christmas break finishing on Monday 20th December and resuming Monday 3rd January.
Players from the Academy pictured a couple of weeks ago.
