U19A National Schools Cup
Click the links below to go directly to a report
Aquinas 83 (48) AVS, Donegal 53 (23)
Aquinas continued their good start to the season with an 83-53 victory over Abbey Vocational School, Donegal in UUJ despite Ciaran Ashe being restricted to playing time with a wrist injury sustained last week.
The home team raced into an 11-0 lead with Niall Dillon and Ben Horner combining for some good scores. The Abbey came back into the game with Quinn and Darby getting some vital offensive rebounds. However, further 3 pointers by McConaghy and Horner saw Aquinas lead 25-11 after 10 minutes.
The second quarter was very similar to the first with Aquinas captain Ronan McGarry getting his team further ahead. At half time Aquinas led 48-23.
The Abbey rallied winning the third quarter by a solitary point as Aquinas rested key players. Entering the fourth quarter Aquinas' Ben Horner and Jack McConaghy took over the game and the Belfast school ran out comfortable winners in the end.
For Aquinas Ben Horner led all scorers with 37, Jack McConaghy 20, Ronan McGarry 10 and Niall Dillon 10.
Aquinas now awaits the winners of St Pat's Ballymena and St Malachy's in the 1/4 final.
__________________________________________________________________________
St Fintans’s Sutton 62 Aquinas 79
Aquinas Grammar School Belfast turned in one of their best displays in schools basketball to defeat St Fintan’s Sutton in Dublin last week.
St Fintans started off brightly with Eric Westbrooks shooting them into a 5-0 lead. However, a change of defense saw Aquinas get back into the game and at the end of the first quarter the Belfast team lead 12-7.
However, a poor offensive showing by Aquinas combined in the second period allowed the home team to race into a 20-13 lead. Aquinas rallied and by half time trailed 26-20 with a great 3 pointer by Jack McConaghy.
Aquinas came out all guns blazing after the half time interval with Ben Horner and Ciaran Ashe combining for great scores. Great team defense combined with a box and one on Eric Westbrooks nullified the outside threat from the home team. Charlie McGrath, Keith Lilly, Conall Devlin and Niall Dillon did a fantastic job on the boards to allow Aquinas to out rebound their bigger opponents. By the end of the quarter Aquinas had a 52-43 lead.
Aquinas continued to dominate and stretched their lead further to 68-48. However, a succession of threes by St Fintan’s cut the deficit to 69-58 with just over two minutes left. Foul trouble was mounting for both teams but Aquinas took control and went to the line several times to close out the game.
Ben Horner led all scorers with 38 points, Ciaran Ashe had 17 and Jack McConaghy 12. However, the defensive effort by the entire team was the ultimate factor in determining the outcome of the came as they held Eric Westbrooks to 14 points.
This was a sweet victory for Aquinas as St Fintan’s had defeated them in the All-Ireland semi final in 2005 in Limerick.
Aquinas now has a second round home game in UUJ against the Abbey Vocational Donegal to be played on/before Friday 16 October.