Mooney magic lands Tigers a last gasp win
“It was a replica of our last game — the same situation — the same score,” Tralee manager, Junior Collins, said. “Lions’ Bosman, Rick Harrigan had the opportunity to win the game from the free throw line but when he landed his first shot to tie the game he missed the second.”
Unbelievably, the same situation developed. Big Micheál Quirke grabbed the rebound, passed the ball to Dave Fanning who ran up the court and offloaded it to their Bosman, James Mooney, who hit a three pointer on the buzzer to win the game.
New Yorker Mooney, whose father hailed from Co Clare, was repeating his play that won the game by the same score when the sides crossed paths earlier in the season.
“You would not put money on it happening again — especially in the same season,” Junior Collins admitted. “But it means we can go into the Christmas break looking forward to the second half of the season — the semi-finals of the cup and the play-off stages of the SuperLeague.”
Lions’ coach Tom Hehir however, will spend much of his free time working on consistency. They have been under pressure since they lost Robert Lynch. He damaged his ankle against Hoops and has been struggling with the injury ever since.
“With so many youngsters in the squad, it has been difficult to operate without him,” coach Hehir admitted. “If we had him I firmly believe we would still be in the cup.
“But, honestly, we should have won this game. We led 52-45 at half time and 72-69 at the end of the third quarter. Rick is one of the top scorers in the league and you would put money on him landing both shots. Unfortunately that did not happen and their Bosman got the vital score.”
Tralee coach, Dave Falvey, had big games from Wilder August who top scored with 38 points and 12 rebounds, Micheál Quirke who included the vital rebound among 18 and Dave Fanning who hit 21.
Kieran Donaghy drove from the RTÉ Sport Star Awards to play but he will be absent for the month of January — including their cup engagements — as he will be in Australia.
A big win over UCC Demons in the derby game at The Mardyke Arena on Friday night put Neptune clear with 14 points at the top of the South Conference SuperLeague table but they have been rejoined by Tigers who have a game in hand. Demons who, like Neptune, have played nine games, are on 12 points.
Without the injured Ramell Ross, Star of the Sea faced an enormous task against Merry Monk Ballina who won this tie 88-84 with Ronan McGarritty scoring 27 points.
With 30 seconds left and the score 84-82, Summersgill committed a holding foul on getting a rebound from a missed free throw and Star had to foul to stop the clock and Robert Taylor scored all four free throws.
St Vincent’s had a 107-92 victory over UCD Marian. Conor Meany and Vincent’s led 22-19 at the end of the first quarter and were 46-38 in front at half time. In the last quarter Vincent’s stretched the lead to 18.
DART Killester, challenging Hoops for the top spot in the North Conference, raced into a 20-4 lead after five minutes. They led by 12 at the break but by just seven going into the final quarter.
Hoops continued their fightback and were rewarded when they went into a one-point lead, 80-81, with two minutes remaining. Killester responded with three huge plays in 30 seconds. Isaac Westbrooks made two free throws to restore DART’s lead, then Jonathan Grennell stole the ball from Hoops’ American, Ben Bridges, and he fed Damien Sealy for a three-pointer to put DART ahead 85-81.
Josh Hinz now returns to the US after an excellent season with Killester and Mark Keenan has signed 6’8” Bryce Burch who played for Star two years ago as the replacement.
In the Women’s SuperLeague, DCU Mercy, had an impressive 64-45 win over DART Killester.
Bausch & Lomb Wildcats underscored their progress under new coach Tony Hehir with a 71-58 victory over Meteors.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
