Portlaoise Panthers scoop silver in the top-tier at Under 14 Boys AICCs

Portlaoise Panthers served up yet another great run on the All-Ireland Club Championship stage, with their Under 14 Boys team scooping Division A silver in Gormanston on Sunday.

Only a week after the club’s Under 16 boys raised the top-tier title in their respective AICC competition, the Portlaoise Under 14s delivered a superb campaign that was book-ended by narrow defeats at the hands of eventual champions, St. Vincent’s.

Indeed, just seven points (51-44) separated them from their Dublin rivals after the full-time buzzer sounded in their curtain-raiser to the tournament on Saturday morning.

Portlaoise took a narrow two-point lead into the fourth quarter, but St. Vincent’s worked their way back, thanks in no small measure to a 10-point haul by Cian Neary in that final period, which took his overall game total to a massive 33 points, with Matthew Dillon chipping in with 11.

Ezekiel Pullos led the way for Panthers on offence as he chalked up an impressive 19 points, while Noah Hill and Mikuss Simsons combined for a further 14, but it was not enough to see them make it a winning start in Group One.

A big third-quarter display did help see them get off the mark at the second time of asking when they went up against Limerick Lions, Portlaoise outscoring their opponents in that penultimate period by seven points on their way to a nail-biting 44-41 triumph.

Trailing their opponents by two deep into the third, Panthers managed to string together a crucial eight-point run, of which six came from Sean McEvoy and the balance from Hill, to help see them overtake into a five-point lead heading into the fourth.

Limerick did manage to close the gap to just a brace, but Portlaoise held on for the victory, helped no end by a Will Murray treble and Michael McGrath deuce down the stretch.

Their closing pool game against Neptune on Saturday proved an even tighter affair, Portlaoise weathering a second half surge by their Cork opponents to clinch a 43-42 win.

The team appeared to be coasting in the opening half, by the end of which they had opened up a 12-point advantage, but Neptune were never going to throw in the towel, and an eight-point run at the start of the fourth saw them edge their way into a one-point lead.

Two free-throws by Zhian Bajo finally got the scoreboard moving again for Portlaoise, who found themselves embroiled in a real tug-of-war right to the finish, a bucket from McEvoy with 34 seconds left ultimately separating the sides at the end.

It was, nevertheless, a victory that came at a cost for David Glynn and Peter O’Sullivan’s side, as Pullos rolled his ankle early on in the game, forcing him to the bench and ultimately out of the knockout stages of the competition.

Finishing runners-up to St. Vincent’s in the group, Portlaoise set themselves up for clash with Queens in the Division A quarter-finals on Sunday morning, and they made a blistering start to that game, racing into a 17-2 lead.

Queens managed to regain their composure and continued on to edge the next three quarters, but the heavy damage they had sustained early on was to prove fatal to their campaign, as they bowed out on a 44-33 scoreline.

Treasure Obazee of Panthers managed to equal Jack Dolliver’s game-high 14 points for Queens, while Hill, Murray and Bajo each chalked up six to help see the Laois side through to the semi-finals where they again came up against Limerick Lions.

Eager to avenge their group loss to Panthers the previous day, Limerick opened up a five-point lead by the half-time break, but Portlaoise had that advantage wiped out by the start of the fourth as the two sides entered the final six minutes deadlocked on 25 points apiece.

Crucially, it was Panthers made the better start to that final stanza, as they hit five points without reply, compliments of Hill and Simsons.

A bucket from Ciaran Culbert helped Limerick reduce their arrears to two, but Portlaoise kicked on again in the closing minute thanks to another big score from beyond the arc by Murray that helped see them emerge 35-28 winners.

The championship decider again saw them pitched against St. Vincent’s, and it was Panthers who had carved out a six-point cushion less than a minute into the second quarter.

But the Dubliners eat into that lead and had the game squared at 29 points apiece by the interval.

And, despite the best efforts of Portlaoise, who trailed by just one with less than two minutes remaining, it was St. Vincent’s who prevailed 60-52, as Neary again delivered a string of late buckets to finish on another huge total of 32.

Delighted with the performance of his players, Portlaoise co-coach, David Glynn told the Laois Nationalist: “The run all weekend was just brilliant. It was a very strong competition this year. There were seven or eight teams in it who really were there to get to an A final and to win the competition.

“So, for us to be able to continually pull results out of fire game after game against good strong opposition all the way through, it was very pleasing.

“Certainly, on the boys’ side (of the club), it has just been dream stuff really this season. We played five Cork tournaments this year and we won four and we were runners-up in one.

“And then in the two AICCs, we won the Under 16 and got silver in the Under 14. We made the last four of the Under 18 National Cup and the last four Under 20 National Cup.

“It's that consistency from Under 14 through to Under 20. There's no other club in the country doing it at the minute, so it's great to watch it all unfold right in front of our eyes.” he said.

PORTLAOISE PANTHERS: Noah Hill, Michael McGrath Ronan O’Gorman, Will Murray, Ezekiel Pullos, Sean McEvoy, Rian O’Sullivan, Kian French Glynn, Zhian Bajo, Mikuss Simsons, Danny Kerry, Treasure Obazee.