Defending champions St Mary’s CBS secure a return to All-Ireland Under 19A Schools Cup final

ST. MARY’S CBS, Portlaoise are now one step away from making it back-to-back All-Ireland Under 19A Boys Schools Basketball Cup titles as they emerged top from their semi-final mini group competition in the National Basketball Arena on Tuesday.

Jack Scully’s side comfortably negotiated the challenge of both St. Joseph’s Bish and Summerhill College, Sligo to set up a mouth-watering All-Ireland decider against Coláiste Éanna back in Tallaght on Tuesday 20 January.

The holders saw off St. Joseph’s by some 22 points, Jayden Umeh and Prince Iheme putting on a three-point shooting clinic as, between them, they drained 13 shots from beyond the arc, while Desmond Ogedegbe led the way on the defensive front for the Portlaoise side.

They won out even more emphatically against Summerhill in their next game, seven players finishing in double digits for the team on that occasion.

While very impressed at the manner in which his players went about their business on Tuesday, head coach, Jack Scully was always confident his side could secure a return to the All-Ireland Schools Cup showpiece.

Indeed, the team was missing just two players from last season’s title-winning squad in Cillian O’Connell and Cormac Howson, who were, nevertheless, two of the top three scorers for them in the 2024/25 final victory over St. Muredach’s College back in January.

What’s more, the current crop of players representing St. Mary’s CBS have also helped their local club, Portlaoise Panthers to the last four of both the Under 18 and Under 20 National Cups this season.

“We only lost two players from last year in Cillian and Cormac, so we had 90 percent of the squad still there,” remarked Scully.

“There's such a big crossover from the club into the school team, and with the club’s Under 18s and Under 20s doing so well, I was very confident that we were going to get the job done and reach the All-Ireland Schools final,” he insisted.

Yet Scully admits that their biggest test of this year’s schools cup campaign still awaits them in January when they take on a Coláiste Éanna side that, last season, fought back from 14 points down to edge them 61-58 in the Under 19A Schools League decider, subsequently denying the Portlaoise outfit an All-Ireland double.

Like St. Mary’s CBS, the Rathfarnham school also enjoyed comfortable passage through to this season’s cup title match, with comprehensive victories over St. McCartan’s, Monagahan and SPSL Rathmore in their respective penultimate round group on Tuesday.

“I suppose us and Coláiste Éanna are definitely the two best teams in the country at Under 19 at the moment,” said Scully. “Éanna won both of their semi-final games by 30 plus points today.

“At the start of the season, when I saw that we were on opposite sides of the draw, I really felt it was going to be us two in the final.

“Last year, they beat us by a couple of points in the All-Ireland Schools League Final. They’ve lost a few players as well, but I’d be confident, going in, that we’ll give a really good account of ourselves and I’m sure they’ll do the same.

“The final will be definitely a different story than all the games leading up to it,” he insisted.

Scully fully believes his squad has the potential to repeat the heroics of last season when they take on their Dublin rivals in what will be one huge game in a very busy month for his players.

“It was the breakthrough last year to win that first schools title” he told the Laois Nationalist.

“That schools cup was the first All-Ireland underage A Schools Basketball title we'd ever won in the town, so we're very lucky to have such a gifted group of players.

“They are, without a doubt, a generational talent and they're the best group of young players we've ever had in the club, and we're extremely lucky to have them, so hopefully we can get over the line.

“January is going to be a huge month. We’re going to have two National Cup semi-finals on the club side, and then we’ve the All-Ireland League semi-finals in the schools and then the All-Ireland Cup Final in the schools as well.

“So it's going to be busy month, and it could turn out to be a month to remember, but the boys are just an extremely talented group.

“They don't take much coaching, they’re very coachable. They all have great attitudes and they’re extremely good players,” he stressed.

Indeed, quite a number of them have figured prominently for Portlaoise Panthers on the Men’s National League Division One front so far this season and they will be looking to carry the experience of competing at that level into their much-anticipated schools cup decider next month.