Neptune prove too strong for Portlaoise in the last four of U/20 National Cup

Basketball Ireland U/20 Men’s National Cup s/f 

Neptune 89 

Portlaoise Panthers 57 

PORTLAOISE Panthers’ pursuit of Men’s Under 20 National Cup glory this season drew to a close after they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Neptune in the semi-finals in Cork on Sunday.

Only the day before, the Panthers Under 18 men had exited their respective National Cup following their loss to St Brendan’s Tralee in a game in which a number of this Under 20 squad had also competed.

That in itself serves to underscore just how young this Portlaoise squad is, and they will surely take heart from making it this far in both competitions.

It was a tough second quarter that really proved the undoing of their Under 20s, as Neptune outgunned them by 20 points in that period to exert a very tight grip on this game.

Pharrell Osagie and Sean Noonan inflicted the bulk of the damage for the Cork side with a combined 48 points, while Dylan O’Rourke and Wesley Delaney each weighed in with a further 11 to help see their side set up a date with Titans in this season’s title game.

Desmond Ogedegbe, on 14 points, was the only player to finish in double figures for Portlaoise, who managed to live with their opponents throughout the first and third quarters.

Indeed, it was nip and tuck over the opening four minutes of play, during which the two sides found themselves all square on two occasions.

But after Love Omoijade and Brayan DeSouza both got in to haul Portlaoise back on to level terms at 10 points apiece, Neptune served up a further seven points without reply, Noonan landing a three before Osagie and Dylan O’Rourke each hit a brace.

That surge helped open up a nine-point gap for the Cork side, but Portlaoise reduced that deficit back to just two (21-19) with a strong two-minute spell to close out the first quarter that saw Ogedegbe convert from both sides of the arc.

But the second quarter was barely two minutes old when the roof started to cave in on Panthers’ National Cup final aspirations.

Indeed, after Ogedegbe and Omoijade got Portlaoise back to within one, Neptune went on an eight-point run, Osagie accounting for six of those scores as he struck from the perimeter and free-throw line.

And, while that surge was punctuated with a Riley Comerford bucket for Portlaoise, the Cork side responded with a further 11 unanswered points that featured sublime efforts from off the three-point line by Wesley Delaney.

Omoijade finally got Panthers’ side of the scoreboard ticking again, but the Laois outfit were already in serious trouble, and their problems were compounded when Osagie picked up an ‘and one’ and Dylan O’Rourke dropped a treble in the closing minute of the second quarter to help see Neptune take a 22-point advantage (50-28) into the half-time break.

It was a long way back for Jack Scully’s side, who kept on battling, nevertheless, with eight straight points from Daniel Booth and Jack Fennell their best spell of the third quarter.

Even after that, Portlaoise still face a 17-point deficit that was pushed back out to 23 (72-49) by the end of that penultimate period after Noonan, Osagie and O’Rourke all inflicted more pain.

And Neptune continued to turn the screw early in the fourth, as Kian O’Rourke landed the first of three triples he would pick up over the closing 10 minutes of action.

That propelled the Cork side even further out of sight as Portlaoise could pick up only a further eight in the final quarter, six of which came from the free-throw line through Luke Kavanagh, Billy Muldowney and Brayan DeSouza.

NEPTUNE: Dylan O’Rourke, Kian O’Rourke, Oisin Tobin, Ben O’Connell, Akitoye Coker, Will Carmody, Noah Vaicekonis, Sean Noonan, Stephen Emukperuo, Wesley Delaney, Luke Walsh, Pharrell Osagie.

Top Scorers: Pharrell Osagie (27), Sean Noonan (21), Dylan O’Rourke (11), Wesley Delaney (11).

PORTLAOISE PANTHERS: Luke Kavanagh, Jayden Umeh, Jack Fennell, Echezona Onuroah, Brayan DeSouza, Daniel Booth, Love Omoijade, Desmond Ogedegbe, Billy Muldowney, Riley Comerford.

Top Scorers: Desmond Ogedegbe (14), Love Omoijade (9), Brayan DeSouza (9).