Panthers U/14 boys land silver in top tier of All-Ireland Club Championships

PORTLAOISE Panthers Basketball Club’s Under-14 Boys team served up a string of top-drawer performances to land silver at last weekend’s AIG All-Ireland Club Championships in Gormanston Park.

Lining out in the top tier of the competition, the Laois side made it all the way to the Division A Final where they were edged out 49-42 by an Éanna side that had pipped them by five earlier in the pool stages.

But victories over Letterkenny Blaze and Limerick Celtics on Saturday propelled them through to the knockout stages where they recorded comprehensive wins over Oblates in the quarter-finals and Limerick again in the last four to secure their place in the decider against their Dublin rivals.

It was an impressive start by Portlaoise to this tournament, the Midlands League winners taking all four quarters on their way to a 48-27 victory over Letterkenny on Saturday morning.

Noah Finn emerged the game’s top scorer on 11 points for Portlaoise, one, the better of Letterkenny’s Conor McDaid.

Evan Branagan and James Sibayan combined for further 17 on the scoreboard, as Panthers ran out comfortable winners.

Next up for the Laois side was a meeting with an Éanna outfit that had already put Limerick to the sword (56-28) in their opening game of the championships.

Portlaoise provided a more severe test for the Dublin side, trailing their opponents by just a solitary point early in the fourth quarter, only to see a seven-point run midway through that period help make it two-from-two for Éanna, as they edged that encounter 41-36.

Jamie Charles inflicted the bulk of the damage for the Rathfarnham side with 16 points, while there was more of a spread in the scoring for Portlaoise, Rory Heffernan and Finn each serving up seven, while Lee McStay and Conall Lalor combined for a further 12.

Panthers made a return to winning ways later that afternoon when they produced strong second and fourth quarter runs to see off Limerick Celtics 36-27 in their final Group One game.

Branagan and Ari Ajayi certainly delivered the goods for their side, the two players totalling 30 points to help see Panthers prevail and set up a Division A quarter-final clash with Oblates on Sunday morning.

After a tight opening quarter that Panthers edged 9-6, the Laois side cut loose in the second and third, outscoring their Dublin opponents by 19 in that period to emerged 50-29 winners, three players finishing in double digits for the victors, namely Branagan (20), Finn (12) and Lee McStay (11).

It set up another meeting with Limerick Celtics in the semi-finals, the Munster side, this time, opening up an 11-5 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Yet Portlaoise really locked down on defence thereafter, affording their opponents just 16 more points over the remainder of the game, while they hit the afterburners on offence for a 47-27 victory in which Finn and Ajayi combined for 25 points.

The Division A decider pitched Portlaoise against an Éanna side that had inflicted on them, their only reversal of the campaign so far.

The Laois side edged the first half by two points (28-26), only to see Éanna turn that deficit on its head by the close of the third before pulling clear down the stretch for a 49-42 victory.

“We knew that Éanna were really up for that game,” remarked Peter O’Sullivan, who coaches the Under 14s alongside David Glynn.

“I suppose we see it as a compliment, that they played only the 10 players, which was probably the first time this weekend that they did that.

“We were two points up at half time, but in the third quarter things just didn't drop for us and they got a bit of a lead, but we got it back.

“We were only three points behind coming down the stretch and then we just had to foul to try to get possession, so it wasn't really a seven-point game. It was really tight throughout.

“For our lads, they'll be disappointed at losing an All-Ireland final, but if you said that at the start of the year to any of them, or to us, that they’d be at that level, we would have taken your hand off for it.

“Overall it was an amazing tournament for us. We would have played a pre-season game against Éanna two years ago and lost by nearly 70 points, so to get to where we are now in that space of time has been brilliant.

“The lads are excellent. They're an amazing team that just lost out to an extremely good side in the final,” he said.

PORTLAOISE PANTHERS: Patrick Ryan, Rory Heffernan, James Sibayan, Lee McStay, Odhran Reddin, Vinny Byrne, Noah Finn, Conor Moylan, Evan Branagan, Conall Lalor, Alan Zakrzewski, Ari Ajayi, Luke Devaney, Dylan Fitzpatrick.