Limerick Lions U18’s faced the challenge of the 2022 U17 Billy Kelly tournament winners, Limerick Celtics in St. Clement’s College on Wednesday 26th October 2022.
Where to start on this epic performance from every one of the lads!!!
Big man Michael Fahy opened the scoring of the game with a lovely drive to the basket and we took off from there with some fine scores from Sean Morrissey, Darragh Horkan and Liam Price. Celtics struggled to score against some strong Lions defense and the first quarter ended up with a 30-12 point score line in Lions favour.
But in true Celtics style, they launched a strong comeback in the second quarter, with some fine outside shooting. Lions had to regroup and ensure that no open shots were conceded. The boys kept their form, ran the plays and kept level-headed. The score at halftime was Lions 51 – 42 Celtics.
The third quarter was a fine battle with some great end to end basketball played by both sides. Liam Price took some strong drives to the basket and managed to score while drawing the fouls. Darragh Horkan played some super defense which saw our lads capitalise on steals and fast breaks. Some super assists from Danny Shahab in this regard. The introduction of Diarmuid O’Donoghue added a lovely lay-up to the score line and Adam Gomes was very strong carrying the ball under strong pressure from the Celtics defense. A super fast break dunk from Liam Price got the team’s energy right back up and they ploughed on with the third quarter score Lions 71 – 58 Celtics.
The fourth quarter went from strength to strength. Despite valiant efforts from a very talented Celtics team, it was not enough to stop the Lion’s roar. Birthday boy Krill Yakolev was in super rebounding form and stopped many inside scores. The introduction of Adam O’Rourke saw fresh energy injected into the team and the Lions hammered home the victory.
Final Score
Limerick Lions 98 – 74 Limerick Celtics
Top Scorers
Liam Price 45
Michael Fahy 19
Daragh Horkan 15