Tralee Warriors made life difficult for themselves for most of their Domino’s cup semi final against a smart UCD Marian side. In the end, Emmet Ryan writes, Daniel Jokubaitis decided to remove all doubt.
That John Dowling still has a full head of hair after this one is astounding. He must have resisted many urges to tear it all out throughout an often frustrating performance from his Tralee Warriors side. Comfortable as the final scoreline was in their win over UCD Marian, he will be furious at how hard his side made it for themselves.
An open opening
There was ample reason to be wary of this one being a cagey affair. Cup semi finals can go that way naturally but, with UCD Marian missing multiple players, there was even more cause to think they’d try to tighten things up too much.
Fortunately Ioannias Liapakis opted for a more mobile defensive game. This was to adapt to the length disadvantage his side had but, whatever the cause, it made for a better game to watch. Daniel Jokubaitis went to work early for Warriors, proving a solid bell cow busting up the middle while leaving the outside game to his teammates.
On the whole the first quarter was a lovely back and forth affair. Tralee were wisely rotating hard from the off, looking to wear down a shorter than usual UCD bench, and didn’t have to work quite as much for their scores. After 10 minutes, that showed with Warriors up 28-23.
A shift in balance
Tralee upped it defensively in the second and that put UCD Marian under fierce pressure. With Warriors built to get more second chance opportunities, the Dublin club needed to have a clear efficiency advantage. It wasn’t bouncing their way by the mid point of the frame but some profligate play by Warriors offensively limited the damage considerably.
Cian Sullivan was having an easy life on the defensive glass. For Marian to compete, they needed to wear him down and draw him out. Instead he was able to camp out in his own paint and wait for the play to come to him. It was ideal for the rangy big.
With Tralee battering away, they kept UCD from troubling them significantly. The fast breaks advantage lying with Marion for most of the half helped this as a contest. As soon as Warriors worked on evening that up, the complexion of the game changed a tad. At the break, Tralee led 44-36.
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Never leave an opening
The feeling around Neptune Stadium at the start of the second half was that Warriors really ought to have been further ahead at the break. The question was if UCD would be able to do anything about Warriors wasting so many first half chances.
Claw back they did and what could have been a facile win for Tralee had quickly turned into a fight. Liapakis tends to do his best coaching when on the back foot but this was all just brilliant floor play by his charges. Jack Keogh tied it up at 53-53 with just over 4 minutes left in the third.
Offensively Tralee were, if anything, more wasteful than they had been in the game’s opening 20 minutes. An Eoin Quigley three settled the nerves somewhat for John Dowling’s side. Still, this one was up for grabs entering the final quarter, with Tralee on top 60-55.
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Jokubaitis decides to win the game
Daniel Jokubaitis seemed to be the only Tralee player that realised the urgency of the situation. After trading blows with UCD to start the fourth, he finally roused his teammates into a more focused offensive performance. Credit was due to Marian’s Zach Hinton, who was matching the scoring output of Jokubaitis, but he was going to need to find yet another level to win this one.
Instead a buzzer-beating three from Jokubaitis put Tralee up by double digits as the Warriors finally drove for home. A powerful finish inside from Jokubaitis soon after looked to have killed it off.
It was a game performance from UCD Marian but their early efficiency issues probably cost them. When Tralee were leaving so many open doors, the underdogs couldn’t quite take advantage. The final scoreline comes at the buzzer but the game is decided over the full 40 minutes. For most of those, Tralee were clearly the better side.
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