Freshers Tournament 2010

Freshers Tournament 2010
Pool Game 1
DKIT 42 - 37 Carlow IT
After a gruelling five hour journey to the University of Limerick on a very dangerous morning for travel due to the cold snap DKIT got off to a great start by winning their first pool game in a competitive encounter. Carlow IT where coming off the back of a defeat to the much fancied UL team so it was vital for DKIT to get of to a good start early in the first quarter and that was due to some great defense and excellent shooting from outside by Dundalk Ravens John Rafferty. DKIT strugged to maintain Carlow IT’s Kevin Donogue who was in fantastic form. Big rebounding by Steven Byatt and Conor Martin lead to good scores by AJ O’Neill. The third quarter was the quarter that sealed the win for the freshers with big threes by J Rafferty and AJ O’Neill. Also the defense played its part by holding Carlow to low scores thanks to David Cuddan and Artjouri Morozov. With four minutes to go DKIT where up 11 points. But Carlows impressive pressure defense quickly cut the lead to five. But the DKIT young lads managed to hold on for the excellant win.
Top Scorers
J Rafferty 19
AJ O’Neill 13
Pool Game 2
DKIT 19 - 49 UL
Next up was the tournament favourites and host University of Limerick. Boasting Irish internationals and superleague players this game was always going to be very much fancied. DKIT started well with two threes from J Rafferty and AJ O’Neill but these good scores soon dried up as UL’s defense was very impressive. DKIT coach decided very early in the game to not concentrate on winning the game but to use it as a training exercise to get others involved and the team responded. Eugen Martens and Eoghan Ryan where excellant on defense from the bench and well run offenses made sure that DKIT would know what to do later against Trinity College. One point i will mention in this game was in the third quarter when John Rafferty got dunked on!
Top Scorers
J Rafferty 6
AJ O’Neill 5
Pool Game 3
DKIT 50 – 38 Trinity
In the third game of the day DKIT beat Trinity to go into the A semi final while the losers went into the Plate semi final. An impressive start saw DKIT go up six in the fist quarter through some impressive shooting by point guard AJ O’Neill. The full panel played their part in the win with scores coming from a great team performance overall. A Morozov finally got into a game offensively getting 8 points on the forth quarter and Steven Byatt hit some nice shots also in the win. This secured a semi final spot agianst DCU the following day.
Top Scorers
AJ O’Neill 16
J Rafferty 13
Freshers Semi Final
DKIT 32 – 54 DCU
After the celebrations of the night before DKIT got back to business with their first cup final in the freshers history. At the beginning of the game DKIT would have to deal with an excellant DCU individual team. Big threes from D O Keeffe and Kevin O Hanlon pulled DCU into a comanding first quarter lead but the DKIT lads never stopped fighting. DKIT switched from zone defense to man to man to stop the three point shooting by DCU and this helped DKIT get back into the game. Great scores by Rafferty and Morozov with great assists by O’Neill kept DKIT within touching distance. Though a very good DCU team where too much for DKIT in the end with DCU running out easy winners in the end. But this tournament was an excellant example of the progress DKIT can make with this freshers team for the Varsities in 2011.
Top Scorers
J Rafferty 12
AJ O’Neill 11

Video of RCSI game

So for the first time we have a recording of a game. It is our most recent game against RCSI.
Not sure if I'll be able to snag sombody to film another game but for now, enjoy.
http://vimeo.com/channels/dkitbasketball

DKIT 63-57 RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons)

Dundalk IT got their first win of the season over a tough RCSI team. DKIT welcomed back DCU Saints superleague player Kevin Lacey. The first quarter started off well for the home side with point guard AJ O'Neill and Lacey getting good scores on the board. Dundalk Ravens players John Rafferty and Ciaran Murray played some great defense to put DKIT up 5 at the end of the first quarter.DKIT struggled in the second quarter only scoring eleven points to the fifteen of the Surgeons. Some good outside shooting by the Surgeons and some very poor defense from DKIT was the cause of the Surgeons getting back into the game. Two big threes from Lex and Rafferty helped fend off a RSCI attack. At half time it was 27-26 to DKIT and with the locals playing poorly this was positive as the Dundalk team knew they could play alot better!The third quarter belonged to Kevin Lacey. He showed younger DKIT team how to score from every possible position. He scored 11 in all in the quarter and didn't forget any of his defensive duties in the mean time. Karl and C. Martin rebounded the ball well in this quarter to put the locals up 7 going into the final quarter.The forth was not an impressive performance by the DKIT lads but they managed to battle it out to make sure they where in the driving seat. Lacey, O'Neill and Rafferty put in some great scores to help put the game out of reach from the Surgeons to finish 63-57Coach Darren McGovern mentioned to the lads at the end of the game that their is alot more to come off this team and that has to start with training harder and making better decisions. After using ten players in the game DKIT will become better after this hard fought game. Next week the freshers travel to play in the colleges freshers tournament in UL and we wish them all the best in the tournament.Top ScorersDKITKevin Lacey 27, Aj O'Neill 15, John Rafferty 9RCSIBrendan C. 20, Adam B. 17, Shanil S. 7

DkIT 33-55 Tallaght IT

DkIT Mens basketball team started the season off with a poor home loss to Tallaght IT. The DkIT home squad had some new freshers starting for the club. Templeogue under age star AJ O’Neill starting at point guard and two Dundalk Ravens teammates Ciaran Murray and John Rafferty. They where complimented with two players from last years team in Kevin from China and Karl.
DkIT started off very poorly on the offense side and this translated into some poor defense at the other end. Quickly the team looked for a player who could score against a well organised Tallaght defense. AJ O’Neill hit a big three to kick start the team followed by another later from John Rafferty. Some great rebounding by Ciaran Murray kept the smaller in height DkIT team in the game in the first quater. Not to mention Kevin’s big three on the buzzer for the end of the quarter. Though the team struggled to maintain a strong Tallaght offense.
In the second quarter DkIT again struggled on the offensive side of things only scoring four points in the quarter. Tallaght raced out to a 25- 18 lead at half time. The DkIT had the feeling that they where still well in the game as they never started to play yet. The third quarter started brightly for the Dundalk club. Scores from Rafferty and O’Neill kept the team in touch. Though where things went wrong was when influencial defender Ciaran Murray had to leave from Fresher GAA duties.
The Tallaght team capitalised on this and raced to over a 20 point lead until Ciaran returned due to his other game being cancelled! Subsititutes Conor Martin and Lex played well on the defensive end but the story of the game was the poor offensive showing by the team who have been showing great promise in training the last few weeks.
In the forth quarter and the game already escaped the coach decide to run the bench to finish out the game. The team put in great effort but it was not to be.
Scorers
DkIT Tallaght IT
Aj O’Neill 12 Kirk 19
John Rafferty 8 Barry 11
Karl 4 Gavin J 9