On Monday the 3rd of November the U16 and U19 teams travelled to Drogheda to compete in the All Ireland League.

The College teams had two games against St. Mary's Diocesan School, Drogheda.

The U16 team won comfortably with a convincing 54-32 score line. Despite the game remaining tight in the first half, St Malachy’s began to pull away with a strong performance in the third quarter to go in to the final quarter leading by a comfortable margin. Mr Fulton commended every player for their contribution to the good away win including Ethan Gibson, Daniel Hackett, Oisin Donaghy, Diarmuid Maguire and Rory Brolly. John Smye was the College’s top scorer and Mr Fulton noted that ‘his accurate outside shooting is a real feature of his game’ and a valuable asset to the team. Michael McWilliams, John Moran, Peter Henvey and Niall McGinnity also had impressive games.

In the other game, the St. Malachy’s U19 team powered their way to an easy win on the road. St. Mary's competed admirably to the dying minutes of the game but they were simply no match for our boys who, Mr Fulton observed, are playing very well at present. The squad of John Largey (Captain), Odhran Eastwood, Niall McKeown, John McMurray, Adam Ryan, Sean Quinn, Paul Morrison, Jordan McCloskey, Antoin McGinn, Peter O'Donnell, Josh Briers and John Smye all shared the playing time equally showing the strength in depth of this squad.

The next games will be against tougher opposition in the All Ireland Schools Cup Quarter Finals. The U19 team will continue its defence of the All Ireland title at home (hopefully next Thursday – 13th November) against Summerhill College, Sligo and the U16 will travel to Cork to face Carrigaline Community School on Friday 14th of November. We wish both teams all the very best of luck with their endeavours!

On a different note, congratulations to Niall McGinnity (Year 11) and Peter Henvey (Year 10) who have been selected for the Irish U15 Basketball Development Programme.

This squad is working towards competing in the U16 European Championships in August 2016. The selection process was very competitive and involved a series of trials and games, therefore we are particularly delighted that two College students have been chosen as part of the thirty-four strong squad. Well done!

Photographs to follow...