St. Conleth’s CC secure U16C All-Ireland Schools Cup with 54-25 triumph over Galway CC

St. Conleth’s Community College secured the U16 'C' All-Ireland Schools Cup with 54-25 triumph over Galway Community College at the National Basketball Arena on Thursday afternoon. A 42-15 first half set the Newbridge school well on their way to a convincing 29-point win.

St. Conleth’s raced into an 8-0 lead to show a dominant start to the game. However, scores from Ehijie Odigie, Mavelose Aginbovia, who had four Galway’s nine points in the first, and Heorhii Matvieiev managed to pull Galway back into the game as the score was 12-9 heading into the second period.

Conleth’s came out in the second half with a vengeance as they scored four of their first five scores from three-point range to extend the lead to 17 points. The pressure continued as they had an 18-0 run in the second quarter before Galway managed to get their first score of the quarter on the board with just under two minutes to go in the half. Six unanswered points for Galway saw them finish the half strong but still remained 15 points behind as we entered the half-time interval.

Joshua O’Neill started to take control of the game himself as he scored the first eight of the Kildare school’s points in the second half. Galway could only amass three points in the third quarter as O’Neill scored 10 of his 25 points in the third along with late scores from Areel Nokhaiz, Conor Waters and Dylan Kavanagh pushing Conleth’s into a 27-point lead as we approached the final quarter.

The final quarter was the tightest quarter of the game as St. Cinleth’s appeared to take their foot off of the gas slightly as scores from Aginbovia and free-throws from Vladyslav Lehutski kept the period close as Conleth’s maintained composure in the fourth to secure the cup and bring it home to Newbridge.

The battle between Joshua O’Neill and Mavelose Aginbovia was the standout showing in the game in which just like the win for Conleth’s, O’Neill stood tall as his 25 points secured the MVP title for him and added another award for Conleth’s to bring back from Dublin with them.

Quarter Scores: Q1- 12-9, Q2- 18-6, Q3- 15-3, Q4- 9-7

Game Scores: Q1- 12-9, Q2- 30-15, Q3- 45-18, Q4- 54-25

Teams

St. Conleth’s CC: Ryan McCabe Scully, Clint Rubis, Conor Waters, Eanna Rochford, Adrian Glowacki, Areel Nokhaiz, Jeremy Yamuteba, Jack Murray, Aleksandras Sulinskas, Mateusz Reszka, Dylan Kavanagh, Adam Farid, Joshua O’Neill, Rhys Kerrigan

Top Scorers: Joshua O’Neill (25), Aleksandras Sulinskas (8), Areel Nokhaiz (8)

Head Coach: Pierce Bolger Hinds

Galway CC: James Dean Cleary, Ehijie Odigie, Ayman Alkout, Maksym Noskov, Vladyslav Lehutski, Kyrylo Sukhi, George Mgeliashvili, Heorhii Matvieiev, Noah Mboup Dominguez, Martin Veszpremi, Mavelose Aginbovia

Top Scorers: Mavelose Aginbovia (17), Ehijie Odigie (5), Heorhii Matvieiev (2)

Head Coach: Michael O’Flanagan

MVP: Joshua O’Neill