RUAIRI Cronin dominated the floorboards at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght this afternoon, scoring an absolutely enormous 50 points to see Castletroy College home to an All Ireland U16 B Boys Schools Cup title, as they won out 79-37 over Colaiste Cholmcille.
Colaiste Cholmcille, Ballyshannon 37 Castletroy College 79
Cronin was unmatched at both ends of the floor, putting in a huge 21 point first half, despite playing just 12 minutes, and dominating under the boards either end to see his team open up a 25-4 lead from early in the first quarter and they didn’t look back from there, with Ryan Mullane also impressing for the Limerick side.
Despite a very solid performance from Ballyshannon’s Darragh Dolan, Drew Heatley Ryan and Sam McGreal, they just couldn’t get past the size of Cronin inside, as the Limerick school saw scores from Mullane, Jonah O’Rourke and Ciaran Coulter in the half, to lead 44-8 at the half time break.
A much-improved third quarter from Colaiste Cholmcille saw them get some great scores up, with Dolan chipping in five points, three of which came from a well-taken three pointer, while Heatley Ryan was also in good form adding a great basket. Cronin was still in dazzling form though and added a whopping 16 points in the period, two of them from outside the three-point line, and with scores from Mullane and Darragh O’Sullivan adding to their tally, they led 60-15 going into the last.
Colaiste Cholmcille got off to a superb start in the fourth and put in a fantastic 12 points in the opening three minutes with scores from Shane Delahunty, Ryan Keenanghan and a big 14-point quarter from Darragh Dolan. Despite a superb effort from the Donegal school though, the damage had already been done and Castletroy were crowned champions in the end on a final scoreline of 79-37
COLAISTE CHOLMCILLE, BALLYSHANNON (DONEGAL): Darragh Dolan (23), Ryan Keenaghan (2), Seimi Campbell, Sam McGreal (2), Adam Burr, Shane Delahunty (4), Gero Gilmartin, Cian McKenna, Jay Gallagher, Emili Gomez Perez, Drew Heatley Ryan (6), James P Gallagher, James S Gallagher
CASTLETROY COLLEGE (LIMERICK): Yousif El Mahi, Darragh O’Sullivan (2), Ryan Mullane (13), Jonah O’Rourke (3), Daniel Shahab (2), Ruairi Cronin (50), Hasan Kashash, Ciaran Coulter (9), Kyle Mullane, Andrew Lowe, Ben Hourigan, Niall Byrnes
MVP: Ruairi Cronin (Castletroy College)
