St. Brendan's advance to Men's NICC National Cup Final with 73-58 win over Leixlip Zalgiris

Kerry side St. Brendan’s will face Dublin’s Barrow Rovers in the NICC Men’s National Cup Final at the National Basketball Arena, after Fergal O’Sullivan and Dan Bowler combined for 45 points in their 73-58 win over Leixlip Zalgiris.

Strong shooting spurts in both the first and third quarter accounted for their Kildare opponents, who were led in the box score by Arturas Zvirblis with 20 points.

Leixlip Zalgiris scored 7 of their 11 first quarter points in the opening four minutes of the contest, Zvirblis hitting a corner three either side of a pair of buckets from Kestutis Damulevicius. O’Sullivan and Bowler quickly steadied the ship with a 5-0 run of their own and St. Brendan’s established some dominance on the boards thereafter. Another prolonged run of scoring for the Kerry side concluded with two more threes from Ryan Sheehy and O’Sullivan to leave Zalgiris trailing 24-11 after the opening ten minutes.

The Kildare team made a some defensive switches to start the second, but it was their work on the offensive end that dragged them back into the game. Five players – Zvirblis, Romualdas Stuina, Aubin Azermar, Mantas Juskeivicius and Ugnius Brenkevicius made contributions as they cut their arrears to five, 36-31 at the half-time interval.

O’Sullivan continued to front the charge for St. Brendan’s Tralee after the break. He scored ten in the quarter, including two from beyond the arc that brought a large travelling support in Gurranabraher Credit Union Arena to their feet. Zalgiris weren’t going down without a fight though and responded in kind with a three of their own from Remigijus Diminciuk at the end of the third to just about stay in touch 57-44 heading into the final period.

Proceedings became slightly more disjointed in the closing ten minutes as both teams began to feel the pace of an intense contest. In truth St. Brendan’s were always able to keep their opponents at arm’s length down the stretch, responding to every score with a bucket of their own. Ryan Sheehy’s free-throws cancelling out a Juskevicius jumper that proved to be the final momentum killer for the 2022 finalists. Dan Bowler capped off his fine individual performance with his 20^th point, before Aaron Fleming made a layup with the final meaningful play of the game, 73-58 the final score at the buzzer.

Quarter Scores: Q1: 11-24, Q2: 20-12 , Q3:13-21 , Q4: 14-16

Leixlip Zalgiris:

Arturas Zvirblis, Kestutis Damulevicius, Andrius Urnikis, Jurgis Butkevicius, Remigijus Dimiciukas, Dalius Tamosauskas, Mazvydas Cepliauskas, Aubin Azemar, Mantas Juskevicius, Ugnius Brenkevicius, Romualdas Stuina, Rimantas Smitas

Head Coach: Mazvydas Cepliauskas

Top Scorers: Arturas Zvirblis (20), Mantas Juskevicius (9), Aubin Azemar (7)

St. Brendan’s:

Fergal O’Sullivan, Liam O’Sullivan, Robert Mulcahy, Gary Lynch, Michael Kelliher, Ryan Sheehy, Dan Bowler, Adam O’Keeffe, Cian Horgan, Ryan Sugrue, Aaron Fleming, Padraig Fleming

Head Coach: Darren O’Sullivan

Top Scorers: Fergal O’Sullivan (25), Daniel Bowler (20), Ryan Sheehy (10)