Moran on fire as Belvedere stun Malachys

Belvedere College caused one of the biggest upsets in recent years in Irish schools basketball when they stunned defending champions St Malachy’s of Belfast in yesterday’s final, 60-50.

The Dublin outfit looked to have been on the verge of being swept away by the talent of Malachy’s throughout the first half but always managed to hang around until an inspired run, led by game MVP Oscar Moran in the third quarter, saw them storm into the lead after being down by as many as 11 points at one stage.

Very much in a battle from there on out, Belvedere had the hot hand down the stretch and used their greater size.

Earlier in the day Holy Faith Clontarf survived a late barrage of scores from St Vincent’s star player Edel Thornton to win their third straight U19 A Girls All Ireland Schools League title.

Inspired by 15 points from final MVP Aoibheann Byrne, Clontarf controlled the game’s tempo throughout, slowing down a normally ferociously fast St Vincent’s attack.

Despite playing the better throughout, Holy Faith had to withstand a nervous closing few minutes when, leading by double digits, Thornton sprung to life and scored eight of her game total 11 points.

It was not enough however, as the Clontarf side got the defensive stops when they really needed them and pushed on to be deserving winners, 38-31.

The two U16 A finals in the morning saw silverware for Calasanctius College Oranmore of Galway in the boys and Presentation College, Waterford in the girls.

For Presentation, the 48-38 win over Ardscoil Rathangan was sweet redemption following their heart-breaking schools cup final loss to Crescent College of Limerick by just a single point back in January.

Meanwhile, for Calasanctius College, yesterday’s U16 A Boys League final victory over Summerhill College Sligo (70-46) rounded off a superb season that also saw them claim the cup title in January.