Cobras Basketball Club

The ladies opened up their season away to league newcomers Jets and came away with a comfortable 59-26 victory. Next up was local rivals Simonstown at home, Cobras started brightly and built up a decent lead. But as you’d expect in a local derby Simonstown fought back to within a couple of points, however the girls held on to finish on the right side of a 33-28 scoreline. Most recently they travelled to Dundalk to take on Ravens for the first time and they put in an accomplished display to leave Dundalk with a 73-48 win. Next up for the ladies is another new challenge, as they face Cavan United for the first time at the Aura Centre on November 26.

The mens team opened with a comprehensive 63-26 victory at home to new entrant Drogheda Bullets. It was an impressive all round team performance, with Eamonn Bradys defensive presence notable. The mens team have experience to draw on this season as in addition to Brady, Jim and John Ward have transferred from Longford Torpedoes. In fact they signalled their intentions for this season, as they followed up the Drogheda game with a 73-60 win away to last seasons Top 4 champion Dundalk Ravens. Next up? Reigning league champions Cavan United visit the Aura Centre on November 26. Its likely to be standing room only.

Note: the mens and ladies fixtures against Torpedoes originally fixed for October 15th in Trim were postponed until later in the season.

Cobras travelled to Killinkere last Sunday for a must win game for a Top 4 position on 18th April. Coach Paul Skelton called for an all out effort and tough defence display and the first quarter began with Cobras doing just that. Outside shooting from Alan Thompson, Eoin McSweeney and Shane Smyth gave Cobras a 22-10 lead.

However, an improved Killinkere team were intent on spoiling Cobra’s plans and pulled the game closer despite a buzzer 3 pointer made at the end of the first half by Eoin McSweeney.

The 2nd half, which in previous encounters proved to be Cobra’s downfall was a scrappy and physical battle in which Shane Carville scored on drives and made free throws to keep the lead for the Athboy men.

With a slender 5 point lead, the stage was set for Cobras to put the icing on the win and held out with further scores from Cobra’s guards and good inside play from young Cobra Cormac Kelly. Defence to the very last second gave the Athboy men a 10 point win which will carry forward into their semi final meeting with Cavan in April.

Shane Carville (30) Eoin McSweeney (6) Alan Thompson (19) Shane Smyth (7) Cormac Kelly (15) Tony Ayres (4) Joe Davis (2) Ian Ratty, Alan Gunning, Gearoid Kelly.

Coach – Paul Skelton

Al Thompson scored the first 8 points and poured 23 overall as Cobras beat last years champions in a physical encounter at Athboy Community School.

Cobras start was impressive. Following Thompson’s initial outburst, Cobras proceeded to hit back to back three pointers from Tony Ayres and Shane Carville. Further scores from Wes McDonagh gave the home side a 10 point lead at the end of the 1st.

Ravens emerged rejuvenated from the half time break as Cobras floundered early in the 3rd quarter. Neil MacSweeney found his range to keep the scoreboard ticking for Cobras, but it was Ravens who were pushing hard and the lead was down to 6 entering the final 10 minutes.

Ravens battled on to take the lead in the 4th, however a three pointer from Eoin MacSweeney and a 3 point play from Alan Thompson ensured Cobras had a 4 point cushion with 90 seconds to play. However with less than a minute to go Ravens converted a 3 point play and Cobras lead was down to 1.

With 15 seconds to go, Shane Carville was fouled driving to the basket and a subsequent technical foul against Dundalk gave four free throw attempts to seal the win.

N. MacSweeeney (8), I. Ratty (2), E. MacSweeney, A. Thompson (23), T. Ayres (9), S. Carville (17), W. MCDonagh (10), E. MacSweeney (9), A. Gunning, G. Kelly, S. Smith, J. Davis

Athboy Cobras hosted rivals Longford last Saturday night in a fast paced and high scoring match. The game began with both teams shooting well from the field but with big rebounds and scores from Cobras inside men, Alan Thompson and Wes McDonagh; Cobras took a deserved 19-13 first quarter lead. The second quarter saw Cobra’s pull further ahead with great scores from guards Neil Mcsweeney, Shane Carville and Tony Ayres. This gave the home side a 49-27 half time lead that they would never surrender.

The second half saw furious end to end basketball of the highest level with the visitors valiantly trying to pull back the lead. However Cobra’s determination and effort saw Shane Smyth and Eoin McSweeney score baskets and the defensive performance of the Cobras combined with some evenly distributed scoring proved too much. On the night Cobras hit a total of eleven 3- pointers that was too much for the visitors from Longford as Athboy recorded a 104-71 victory.

Scorers:

Shane Smyth (9) Eoin Mcsweeney (9) Alan Thompson (24) Wes McDonagh (4) Shane Carville (29) Neil mcSweeney (27) Tony Ayres (2) Alan Gunning

Coach: Joe Davis; Paul Skelton

Cobras travelled to Rochfortbridge and were met by full strength squad intent on revenge for their previous loss to the Cobras on their home court. Cobras had a sluggish 1st quarter that proved difficult to come back from and were always chasing the game. Despite a spirited 3rd quarter comeback in which cobras drew level, dragons pulled away with some home court shooting levelling their encounters this season at 1-1.

S Smyth (8) A Gunning (8) A Ayres (3) E McSweeney (5) S Carville (23) W McDonagh (9) J Davis (4)