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