The Irish Intervarsities are the largest and oldest basketball tournament in Ireland and the LYIT men’s team returned this year after a 9 year absence with hope of challenging for the ‘B’ title after their All Ireland Division 2 Championship win in March.
The ladies team also qualified for their first ever intervarsities and were hoping to try advance out of a tough group.
The men got the tournament off to a great start with a win over North West neighbours Sligo IT. Sligo had the talented back court of Philip Hamilton and Tobi Brockman which allowed them to stay in touch but by the second half LYIT had a comfortable lead thanks to a great team display but in particular to the phenomenal shooting of Jack Mackey who had the crowd on their feet hitting seven three pointers on his way to a 28 point game.
Also notable was the play of Conor Reid in the post and Peter Lynch who hit some key three pointers of his own.
The second game was against Division One team IT Tallaght and would provide a useful insight into the level of competition LYIT will face next year in their first ever season in Division One.
LYIT were dealt a blow early in the game when Jack Mackey had to leave the game with a foot injury and Ray Balogun picked up 3 early fouls and had to sit out the first half.
IT Tallaght took full advantage with Aidan Dunne and Ben Jamming using their size advantage to open up a 10 point lead. T John Casiello was leading the way for LYIT hitting mid-range jump shots and getting to the rim time and time again and even with Mackey back in the game LYIT just couldn’t hit enough open shots to get back into the lead.
The third game for LYIT was against their opponents from the All-Ireland semi-final Dublin Business School. DBS featured two professional scholarship players standing at 6’10” and 6’11” and they made full use of their size advantage punishing LYIT from the opening tip as they jumped out to a 16-3 early lead. The game looked over but LYIT refused to give up and, even being down 12 points late in the fourth quarter, LYIT battled back to find themselves down 3 points with only 2 seconds left on the game clock.
At this point the highlight of the entire weekend’s play came from Jack Mackey hitting a crazy three pointer as the clock expired to take the game into overtime where LYIT would go on to win by 5 points. Ray Balogun proving his ability in clutch time with key steals and scores in the overtime period.
LYIT then faced an agonising wait to find out if they would proceed into the finals but due to other results and DBS upsetting IT Tallaght, three teams ended up in a tie situation and LYIT missed out on points difference.
A disappointing end to their intervarsity weekend but some great performances which will bode well for the future.
The Ladies found themselves in an incredibly tough group and had to play large colleges with strong basketball programmes such as University of Limerick, UCD and Trinity College Dublin. LYIT were out-matched but battled hard in every game.
With their never give up attitude and showing flashes of good play they gained encouragement and displayed a level of improvement in evidence in the club since the outset of the league last September. Sophie Walsh was a standout player as she averaged 15 points over the three games and showed off her fantastic shooting ability.
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