There was a great buzz about the first senior men’s game in Donegal Town for three years and this showed with a packed out gym for the encounter on Saturday night.
Donegal Town Basketball Club 75 Athlone IT 58
The locals were treated to a home win, too, with Donegal Town recording a 17-point win.
The game got off to a quick start for DTBC set by Dylan Kennedy and Paul McHugh ferocious defence at the top of the key.
Donegal quickly racked up the score turning defence into attack with Jason Duignan and Dylan Kennedy scoring on the fast break.
The ball movement from Donegal was a joy to watch all evening and Matthew Oates scored a sweet basket while being fouled after a number of great passes and cuts from DTBC.
Paul McHugh knocked down three 3 pointers in the 1st as he did the previous week to finish off a high scoring quarter DTBC 30 – AIT 12.
Coach Paddy Muldoon stated after the game the ‘players who weren’t happy with their performance in Castlerea Kings last week trained hard all week and this showed in their performance in the first quarter when the foundation was laid for the win’.
The second quarter began with AIT getting back into the game showing some of the talent they have in the college scoring a number of nice mid range jumpers.
Towards the end of the second quarter, Donegal once again showed how strong they were on defence with Dillon Muldoon and Patrick Reid insid.
AIT had numerous charging calls against them on Muldoon and Patrick Reid had a massive block which really got the crowd hyped up.
Adam Gallagher came off the bench and scored a number of his signature pull up jumpers from mid range to finish the half strongly.
The third quarter began with Donegal playing a high press up top smothering Athlone’s guards leading to easy scores for Donegal.
The trio of Dillon Muldoon, Paul McHugh and Dylan Kennedy had 16 steals between them and these turnovers led to easy scores on the other end.
Dillon Muldoon was unstoppable driving at the defence scoring in a multitude of ways.
16-year-old Duirmuid O’Donnell came on in the third to make his senior debut and played with great confidence. He caught a number of big rebounds over strong AIT men and scored a nice jumper from the corner much to the delight of the home fans.
Donegal introduced a number of their bench players in the fourth as the game got away from AIT.
Creegan Alcock and Conall Smith made their senior debuts as well and looked promising. It’s great to see many of the young players coming through thanks to the fantastic work being done by the underage coaches in the past few years.
Darragh Griffin and Adam Gallagher made a nice guard duo in the fourth, finding the big men Jason Duignan and Paddy Reid inside.
DTBC finished the game well winning 75-58 against a strong AIT team.
DTBC’s next game is another home fixture on Saturday at 7pm against Boyle BC.
Donegal Town scorers: Paul McHugh 20, Dillon Muldoon, Dylan Kennedy 15 each, Patrick Reid 7, Adam Gallagher 6, Jason Duignan 5, Matthew Oates 4, Diarmuid O’Donnell, Creegan Alcock 2 each
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