Longford Phoenix Under-16 boys represented the LLR League in the All Ireland Club Championships this weekend.
Drawn in a tough pool, they made a very strong start against Athlone, leading going into the final-quarter. However, two Athlone three-pointers left Phoenix in arears swung the game and Phoenix, lost by just two points in the end on a scoreline of 43 points to 41.
The second game saw the U16’s face Letterkenny Blaze, winners of the north-west league. A below-par performance saw the Donegal team take a comfortable win by 20 points.
In their final pool game, Phoenix faced the dominant Portlaoise Panthers side, comprehensive champions of a very competitive midland league. While Phoenix coped well with the Portlaoise press, their finishing was again below par. The physically dominant Portlaoise chalked up another comfortable win en-route to the A quarter-finals.
On Sunday morning Phoenix faced a very useful Tralee Magic in the C quarter-finals and despite Phoenix starting the game with a three-pointer, the officials ruled that the game had to be restarted and the score reset.
That seemed to unsettle the Longford lads and they had a poor first-quarter, trailing 12-2 at the break. Although they continued to prise open the Kerry defence, a touch of nerves seemed to be preventing phoenix from converting those opportunities. Trailing by 17 points towards the end of the third quarter, the game looked a lost cause.
However two baskets closed the deficit to 13-points at the start of the fourth. A change of defence seemed to give Phoenix new impetus and urgency. Four three-pointers swung the momentum in Longford’s favour but the clock was against them and they came up short to exit the tournament on a score of 38-32.
Last weekend concluded the four All-Ireland club championship weekends and Longford Phoenix can be proud to have represented our Longford-Leitrim-Roscommon region with distinction in each of these tournaments.
All that remains for this season is the LLR top four competitions which take place in the coming week.
