Maigh Cuilinn 65

UG Maree 77

MAIGH Cuilinn’s season-long failures on offence came back to haunt them once again on Saturday as their hopes of pulling off an ambush against the newly-crowned cup champions crumbled in the final 15 minutes.

Having shown the class to give their local rivals a guard of honour onto the court at the call-outs before the game – and make a presentation to the visitors at half-time to mark their cup success – John Cunningham’s side then overcame a slow start to put themselves in position for just a third win of the season, only to be outscored 30-15 down the stretch.

A hot hand from cup MVP Jarrett Haines had UG Maree 9-2 up early in the game, Haines hitting all but one of those points, but Maigh Cuilinn managed to reel back that deficit, and a 3-pointer from Joe Tummon at the end of the quarter had them trailing 16-15 at the first break.

The had got their noses in front by half-time, with Grant Olsson’s physicality causing UG Maree all kinds of trouble inside on his way to eight points, with the basement side full value for their 38-34 lead at half-time; and when Maigh Cuilinn opened the third quarter with back-to-back 3s from Mateo Dargam and James Connaire to stretch 10 clear, UG Maree looked in     trouble.

Kyle Cunningham threw in another bucket from outside the arc, and Maigh Cuilinn were 50-38 to the good at the mid-way point as the table-toppers struggled for a way back into the game, but they kept their composure and slowly clawed their way back into the game.

Cathal Finn had a massive second-half for Maree, hitting 10 points and doing a brilliant job on Olsson in defence, restricting the American to a single basket in the entire second-half. With that pipeline of scores shut-off to them, Maigh Cuilinn faltered, and a 17-4 run had Maree a point ahead, 55-54, at the end of the quarter.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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