National Cup

Jan 18 2025

Éanna win U18 Men’s Billy Coffey National Cup title

Éanna lifted the U18 Men’s Billy Coffey National Cup, following a 92-72 win over Titans at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday. Adam Charles picked up the MVP, he racked up 26 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five turnovers for the winning side.

Titans made a blistering start to this contest, captain Luke Herring drained three from the three-point line, Eoin Potito and Alban Hart also scoring from long range. By the time Nathan Gbinigie’s dunked in the last minute the Galway outfit were 29-6 up. Eanna reduced the deficit to 29-10 with some joy from the free throw line.

Eanna, who overcame a 25-point deficit in their semi-final win over Limerick Lions, got the first points of the second quarter through Charles. Charles, who’d been kept scoreless in the first quarter, clicked into gear in the second, his basket and additional free throw saw the deficit cut to 10 points, 33-23, midway through the quarter - Charles contributing 10 of those points for the Dublin club at that stage he’d have 15 by the end of the quarter.

Adam Charles won the U18 Men's Billy Coffey National Cup MVP award after his 26-point haul.

A long range three from Herrick made it 38-28 to Titans with three minutes to go. But six points from Sam O’Connell, a corner three and a pair of free throws from Charles had Éanna in front, 39-38. Gbinigie responded with another dunk in the last seconds of the quarter, Titans with the slenderest of leads at the break, 40-39.

Titans opened with back-to-back scores in the third quarter, through Herrick and Stephen Owede, to move 44-39 up. Eoin Potito went on an eight-point run, including two three’s, which had Titans 54-47 up four minutes in. Eanna retook the lead, 58-54, with a little over three minutes to go, helped by a nice three by Ryan Bell from the top of the arc and an Adam McCarthy layup. A three from Charles to beat the end of quarter buzzer made it 63-58 to Éanna going into the final quarter – Charles’ tally now at 22 points.

Momentum appeared to be with Éanna, Charles dunk in the opening minute demonstrating this and they were ahead by eleven points, 69-58, two minutes into the fourth after another basket by O’Connell. A much-needed two point jump shot from Liam Smyth got Titans back on the scoresheet., it was 69-60 with six and a half minutes to go.

A corner three from Harry Lynch put Éanna 74-62 to the good with four and a half minutes to go – Lynch would finish with 25 points and six rebounds. Another three from Lynch with a little over two minutes to go was met with a big cheer from the Éanna fans, their advantage now 82-66. But Titans kept plugging away, Potito’s layup and trailed 82-70 with a minute and a half to go, but they couldn’t overhaul the deficit.

Game MVP Adam Charles said: “We looked back at what went wrong in the other (semi-final) game and we were very sure that, you know, that wouldn't happen again. And when it happened again we were all kicking ourselves, but we knew how to get back in the game. We'd done it before, we did it last week.”

We caught up with Harry Lynch from Éanna following his side's success in the U18 Billy Coffey National Cup final 🗣️#BINationalCup pic.twitter.com/jEq5WjroAh
— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) January 18, 2025

Quarter Scores:

Q1: 10-29, Q2: 29-11 Q3: 24-18, Q4: 29-14

Game Scores:

Q1: 10-29, Q2: 39-40, Q3: 63-58, Q4: 92-72

Titans BC:

Rioghan Claus (DNP), Sam Herrick (0), Eoin Potito (17), Alban Hart (5), Stephen Owede (16), Conor McDonagh (DNP), Ruairi Walsh (DNP), Liam Smyth (2), Valentino Edobor (0), Nathan Gbinigie (14), Noah Mungoma-Webb (2).

Éanna BC:

Adam McCarthy (13), Bruno Domingos (2), Danny Hamill (DNP), Adam Charles (26), Conor Chambers (2), Aodhan O’Neill (DNP), Ryan Bell (9), Patrick Walsh (2) Sam O’Connell (13), Harry Lynch (25), Noah Dodson (0).