Mayo school's basketball coach happy about 'huge performance'

St Muredach’s head coach Barry Murphy jumped across the floor, pumping his fists at his supporters after his team booked their place in the All-Ireland ‘A’ Final.

Speaking to The Mayo News after the dust had settled on the floorboards of the National Basketball Arena, Murphy applauded his team for a ‘huge performance’ afterwards.

“We worked really hard and tried to keep out of foul trouble as much as we could, because they’re very good on the line. For example, Adam Charles hit five from five. So if you keep fouling them, they’re going to really hurt you,” he said.

“We weren’t playing all that well for a few weeks beforehand, we lost to Gortnor Abbey, they deserved to win it, on Friday in Castlebar. In training, we were kind of going through the motions. I was a little bit worried about them but they just went back to themselves.”

Making crucial free throws in crunch time worked out in St Muredach’s favour, when the Ballina boys defended a slim lead in the dying minutes. Mark Cunningham got to the line twice in the final minutes and had four from four. But overall there is room for improvement, according to Murphy.

“We usually hit about 80 per cent of our free throws, so we were kind of down a bit yesterday. There was huge pressure and these things are happening and it’s something we keep working on over the Christmas period,” he said.
Apart from the masterful performances by Mark Cunningham and Brian Donoghue, Nathan Roddy’s contribution was even more valuable considering he played with a fractured finger: “He was a huge doubt going into the game. Nathan hasn’t really played any basketball in the last few weeks. He has missed out on club stuff and played only a couple of minutes against Gortnor Abbey. His finger was heavily strapped, but it’s not in the shooting hand.”