Ballincollig shut down Eanna to progress in National Cup

Éanna’s Conor Oikcius rises to claim a rebound in the Domino’s Men’s Super League game against Ballincollig. Picture Chani Anderson.

Pat Duffy Men's National Cup: Ballincollig 85 Eanna 70 

Ballincollig produced quality basketball to dismantle highly-rated Eanna in the Pat Duffy Men’s National first round clash at the MTU Arena on Saturday.

Make no mistake this was basketball at its best as the Cork side did everything right after a sluggish start with some of their defending off the charts to completely shut down their Dublin opponents.

The home side were playing man to man defence from tip-off with Kristen Andabaka giving the visitors an early lead with a brace of free throws.

In the closing minutes baskets continued to be a rarity but Ballincollig nailed a late basket with a deft move from Alberto Rodriguez that gave them a slender one- point lead 18-17.

Adrian O’Sullivan has really come into form in recent weeks and he started with a basket and three pointer that helped the home side lead 26-19 in the 13th minute.

Keelan Cairns produced a monstrous three pointer and Lattrell Jossell drained a three pointer and with four minutes remaining to the interval Ballincollig had surged into a 17- point lead 38-21.

The closing minutes to the break were scrappy and with Eanna playing far better defence they reduced the deficit to nine points 39-30.

Looking at the half-time stats for Ballincollig, they shot 8/22 inside the paint 36% and 5/19 outside the arc that gave them a 26% average.

The visitors had a poor half with 8/20 inside the arc and 1/9 outside the paint giving them a mere 11% which will disappoint their coaching staff as they are usually a good shooting team.

On the restart, consecutive from Eanna’s Gormley and Sean Jenkins got them up and running with the deficit reduced to five points.

Credit to Ballincollig they refused to panic and with Mitchell draining a brace of baskets and Cairns knocking down his second three-pointer it helped them build a 14-point lead in the 23rd minute.

Ballincollig played some in your face defence that simply restricted the usually free-scoring Eanna squad to mere scraps in the offence court.

It got worse for Eanna in the closing minutes as Ballincollig shot the lights out and entering the final quarter, they commanded a 71-50 lead.

Coming down the stretch both sides used various rotations as this game was decided long before the final buzzer.

The prize for Ballincollig is a home quarter final on December 6 when they welcome Super League leaders Belfast Star to the MTU.

Scorers for Ballincollig: L Mitchell 23, L Jossell 19, J Steel 14, A O’Sullivan 14.

Eanna: M Blackwell 21, K Andabaka 10, S Jenkins 11, J Gormley 8.

BALLINCOLLIG: A O’Sullivan, J Steel, L Jossell, D O’Herlihy, A Rodriguez, C O’Sullivan, C O’Sullivan, R O’Sullivan, C Blount, L O’Sullivan, D Corkery, L Mitchell.

EANNA: C O’Sullivan, J McAfee-Marion, D Kiernan, C Dikcius, K Andabaka, S Desinica, N Lynch, S Jenkibs, M Blackwell, A Charles, J Gormley, M Christal.

Referees: Emer Buckley (Kerry), Adam Wickham (Dublin). Stephen O’Shaughnessy (Tipperary).