THE Limerick Celtics U17 boys won the Billy Kelly U17 tournament in Cork on Saturday.
Thirty-Five teams from all over Ireland competed in the biggest basketball event ever with 74 games over the two days in five main venues in Cork City. Limerick Celtics topped their group and beat Limerick Lions in the tournament quarter final.
A semi final against tournament favourites Blue Demons saw the Celtics produce a fantastic fourth quarter performance to overcome their opponents and put the Limerick Celtics in their first ever Billy Kelly National U17 Boys National Final.
Belfast Pheonix overcame Killester in the other semi final by a large margin, the Northern side had a commanding lead against Limerick Celtics in the 3rd quarter of the Billy Kelly Final, but the Limerick side crawled their way back into the game.
Limerick Celtics took the lead in the dying minutes of the game, Pheonix hit two huge shots to bring the game to overtime. A strong start and some super scores by Limerick Celtics Cian Gleeson, Martin Frawley and Denis Mathews gave the side a seven point lead early in the opening minutes of extra time.
The Belfast side came back again with some excellent shots but Celtics defense was proving too much for the Belfast Phoenix team and with two more super scores from Celtics Sean McNamara and Oliver Barry the Limerick Celtics side ran out winners of the 40th Billy Kelly National TU17 Tournament.
Here is the Limerick Celtics squad in full!
Cian Gleeson, Denis Mathews, Oliver Barry, Martin Frawley, Sean McNamara, Mathew Barry, Mikey Barrett, Callum O’Rourke, Kevin Morrow, Chris Neilsen, Con Kirby, James Corcoran and Roghan Harris
Coach: Tony Hehir
Assistant Coach: Jordan Hehir
Team Manager: Rachel Frawley.
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