Kinsella applauds big team effort as Portlaoise Panthers beat Malahide

ND Audit Portlaoise Panthers 99 

Mater Private Malahide 81

LIAM Kinsella applauded the all-round team effort that ND Audit Portlaoise Panthers produced in seeing off a tough Mater Private Malahide team in their latest Men’s National League Division One outing in St. Mary’s Hall on Monday.

One of five players to finish that game in double figures for the Laois side, Kinsella stressed the importance of everyone putting their shoulder to the wheel in order to see the team extend their winning start to the season to four games.

And that togetherness was all the more imperative given the loss of team mate, Darren Townes to a serious knee injury early in the second quarter.

All square at 51 points apiece at half-time, Monday’s game saw Panthers carve out a six-point lead (77-71) by the close of the third quarter before really taking command in the fourth, as Xabi Arriaga and Aleksandar Kovacevic each finished the game on 23 points that helped counter the combined 52 from Malaide’s Romonn Nelson and Murray Hendry.

“Malahide were very strong and it was a dogged game that was back and forth,” Kinsella told the Laois Nationalist.

“We had been allowing teams about an average of 60 points a game up until tonight, but by half-time, Malahide had 51, so we knew that, while offensively we were grand, allowing a team 51 in the first half was not up to our standards at all.

“So once we knuckled down and dug in on defence, the rest of it just fell into place.

“It was a case of just rolling our sleeves up. Everyone just had to do their part because that’s what our style of play is.

“Their player Romonn Nelson had 21 points in the first half, but in the second half he had just six. Gary [Morrissey], Davin [McEvoy] and Dylan [Dunne] did an unbelievable job on him.

“Then on our offensive end, everyone did their fair share. Xabi had a few big ones coming towards the end. It was one of those games where everyone did their part and we’re delighted to come away with that win,” he said.

An early three-pointer by Kovacevic and a deuce by Arriaga got Portlaoise up and running in what would prove a high-scoring first quarter that ended with Portlaoise 29-24 in front.

As expected, Romonn Nelson and Murray Hendry proved Malahide’s primary attacking threat with a combined 17 points over the opening 10 minutes.

Yet Kovacevic and Arriaga served up the very same amount for the hosts in the opening period to help keep them in front.

The Dublin side opened up the second quarter with a six-point run before play was halted due to a serious knee injury to Townes, that resulted in him being hospitalised.

Once the game eventually resumed, the home side began to regain their composure and opened up a six-point gap as James Phelan, Gary Morrissey, Arriaga and Kovacevic all put up baskets in the paint.

But, yet again, Malahide responded with scores from Nelson, Oran Flannery and Matthew Harper that helped haul them back on to level terms (51-51) by the half-time break.

Portlaoise re-emerged for the second half firing on all cylinders, as they strung together a nine-point run that featured big threes from Cillian O’Connell and Arriaga.

Still, Malahide hung around, and points from the free-throw line by of Hendry and Matthew Harper helped keep their hosts in sight.

Portlaoise headed into the final quarter with a six-point cushion and exerted a real stranglehold on the tie after an 11-point run enlarged the gap to 16 with just under four minutes remaining.

Three buckets on the inside from Kinsella, along with further scores from Arriaga, Phelan and McEvoy proved more than enough to see Portlaoise leave Malahide in their rear-view mirror.

Jack Scully’s side will now park their league campaign as they turn their attention to Round 1 of the President’s National Cup that sees them on the road to take on Maigh Cuilinn this weekend.

“We’re away in Galway,” said Kinsella. “It’s a long trip and that’s been a bit of our Achilles heel, just getting ourselves up for big games like that.

“When you’re playing in St. Mary’s and the place is thronged and the crowd is out there cheering you on, it’s very easy to get going.

“But what we’ve struggled to do is get ourselves up for those long distance away games, so we have to find that something to spark us, especially when it’s knock-out basketball and you’ve a long journey ahead.

“Maigh Cuilinn are definitely going to be up for it, especially after the journey we will have had to make, so we’ll have to get going from the start” he stressed.

ND AUDIT PORTLAOISE PANTHERS: Cillian O’Connell, Dylan Dunne, James Phelan, Davin McEvoy, Kevin Donohoe, Gary Morrissey, Xabi Arriaga, Kyle Burke, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Liam Kinsella, Darren Townes.

Top Scorers: Xabi Arriaga (23), Aleksandar Kovacevic (23), James Phelan (13), Kevin Donohoe (12), Liam Kinsella (10).

MATER PRIVATE MALAHIDE: Cian Daly, Tom French, Sean Daly, Stephen Ingle, Oisin Rice, Oran Flannery, Matthew Harper, Jeff Collins, Romonn Nelson, Christian McDonnell, Murray Hendry.

Top Scorers: Romonn Nelson (27), Murray Hendry (25), Matthew Harper (8), Christian McDonnell (8).