MATCH REPORT – U16 BOYS V OMAGH THUNDER
Following on from a very close game at Omagh only two weeks previously, Blaze hosted the Omagh boys at home in the Loreto.
From the away game we knew it was going to be a physical game with a number of the Omagh players being dominating in both size and skill.
As with the previous game the team was missing several players but given the spirited performance against Tyrone Towers the previous day, Blaze were hoping to repeat their performance.
The bench remained unchanged except the addition of Mark Houston who was returning after illness. The first quarter was very much end to end but with very little in the way of baskets.
From the start Omagh press strongly with their No12 being the strongest player.
The Blaze men defended well with the end of the first quarter seeing the score in single figures for both teams. The second quarter saw Omagh pull ahead with a series of strong offensive moves.
The blaze boys defended well with Eoghan Donaghy, Oisin Randles, Oisin O’Brien, Gareth Neely, Ronan Daly and Darragh Scott all effective in the key.
There were some well practiced offensive plays by the Letterkenny boys which garnered some well needed points with Ronan Daly, Oisin Randles and Eoghan Donaghy scoring. Despite that however Blaze found themselves 14 points down at half time.
The game strategy was revisited and more emphasis places on pressing Omagh’s strength. This has the desired effect as once they became frustrated they lost concentration and from solid defence, taking advantage of the turn overs created Blaze were able to pull back to a deficit of 7 points going into the fourth quarter.
Mark Houston joined the frey and was soon on the sheet with a sweet 3 pointer.
Adding strength to the Blaze side Mark attacked the basket and played well in defence. A tired and frustrated Omagh started to take their anger out on the Blaze boys which lead to mistakes in their game allowing Blaze to slowly pull back with Ronan Daly, Oisin Randles and Eoghan Donaghy bringing the score back to 2 down. With 20 seconds to go Oisin Randles hit a three pointer taking Blaze into the lead by a single point.
With Omagh having possession of the ball they charged the basket and in the last four seconds had the ball bouncing off the ring three times but thanks to fearless Blaze defending, not making the basket.
Blaze won by a single point.
This was edge of the seat, stuff with a great result, well earned by the boys.
MATCH REPORT – U16 BOYS V TYRONE TOWERS
The Blaze U16 boys travelled to Dungannon on Saturday past to play a physically bigger and stronger Tyrone Towers team. The boys were again under strength as Max Leadley and Luke Cassidy were missing due to international training and some players taking advantage of the mid term break to get away.
However this did not phase the boys as they started brightly scoring from the tip off. Oisin Randles worked hard inside on offence getting some excellent scores and capitalising from the free throw line.
Blaze kept the pressure up on offence with crisp passing which resulted in open shots at the basket. The Letterkenny lads were leading by 4 as the first quarter was coming to an end but a last second shot from Towers narrowed the gap to 2.
Into the second quarter and Towers began to use their bench with the next man coming on just as big as the one that went off. Blaze used their bench too with Oisin O’Brien and Gareth Neely giving some of the starters a rest.
Blaze opened up a 10 point lead in the second quarter by using their full court press to great affect with steals from Darragh Scott and Ramel Solir and then providing the assist to Eoghan Donaghy and Ronan Daly for the score.
The second half was a tighter affair with Blaze being required to step up their defence and in particular boxing out with Towers piling the pressure on at the offensive end.
With the lads starting to tire, the foul count started to go up and Oisin Randles and Ronan Daly were both on 4 fouls going into the fourth. Tyrone Towers kept chipping away at the lead and with Ronan Daly receiving his fifth foul, Oisin O’Brien was called to step up.
There were 2 mins on the clock when Towers drew level then the and 1 min to go when they took the lead. This was short lived as Oisin Randles stepped up to hit a 3 point shot from the corner.
Now Blaze had the lead with time running out. Towers worked the ball up and got it into one of their big men in the key but the ref had judged him to be in there too long and he was called for a 3 second violation.This handed the ball back to Blaze to inbound from their own base line. The ball was in bounded to Oisin Randles who was quickly fouled and with Towers being on 5 team fouls this meant that Oisin would shoot 2 free throws.
He was unlucky with the first despite some very good free throw shooting earlier in the game. Oisin throws the ball at the basket which starts the clock and doesn’t give Towers any time to rebound and to get a shot off. Blaze win a most enthralling and exciting game.
OTHER RESULTS
Blaze U16 Girls v Donegal Town 43-41 (Blaze won)
Blaze U12 Girls Jets v Kilcar: 64-10 (Blaze won)
Blaze U12 Girls Dynamite v Kilcar: 18-22 (Kilcar won)
Blaze U14 Boys v Ballyshannon: 53-46 (Blaze won)
Blaze U16 Boys v Ballyshannon: 48-43 (Blaze won)
Blaze U14 Girls v Phoenix: 46-26 (Blaze won)
