Part I: All roads lead to DUBLIN

Division 2 Men’s Final 2018/19

Sligo Institute of Technology  88  –  91  Limerick Institute of Technology

A furious start to the game saw both teams looking to get to the basket and not afraid to shoot the three.  Limerick Institute of Technology’s Victory Scholar Matt Scamuffo hit all three of his free throws to get LIT on the scoreboard while Sligo Institute of Technology’s Victory Scholar Zack Yonda knocked down his first from behind the arc in answer. Scamuffo went on to have 15 in the opening quarter ably helped by fellow Victory Scholar Andrew Curiel and Krystian Burchardt. For Sligo, Tobi Brockmann and Victory Scholar Conor McClenaghan with Yonda saw them put up 27 points. First quarter LIT 24 – 27 Sligo IT.

In the second, Sligo’s defense ramped up a notch and held LIT scoreless for the first three minutes. Yonda started to get into the lane and showed some quality finishes under pressure. Philip Hamilton and Brockmann’s movement off the ball was causing LIT all sorts of problems and while LIT’s Scamuffo was knocking down some tough finishes, Sligo started to pull away. Half time saw the score LIT 36 – 57 Sligo IT.

Zak Balogun brought the energy for Sligo at the start of the third crashing the boards on both ends and earning points at the free throw line. Limerick IT refused to give up and started to cut into the IT Sligo lead with Burchardt and Curiel finding their scoring touch and when Scamuffo made back to back baskets the lead was cut to 13 points. Tobi Brockmann fouled out in the third quarter, he was greatly missed on the floor. However, that man Yonda answered with another huge three and fellow scholar McClenaghan had a baby hook shot to keep Sligo firmly in control or so it appeared as Scamuffo had other ideas as he went off in the last minute to cut the lead to 12 points 74-62 to Sligo.

The Scamuffo show continued in the opening 2 minutes of the fourth with four consecutive baskets cutting the lead to 8 points and having the Limerick bench in raptures but in what was becoming a mano e mano battle Yonda answered with 5 points of his own. Limerick needed a spark to try break the 8 point barrier and they got it when Curiel made two huge back to back triples and when Mark Shiels made a corner three and Scamuffo converted on a and one play all of a sudden it was a tie game, 81-81 with 5 minutes on the clock and all to play for. With three minutes to play Scamuffo came off a screen to sink a three and give Limerick their first lead since the first quarter.  Baskets were at a premium but with 35 secs to go Yonda tied it up with pull up and 10 secs later Scamuffo knocked down a three to put LIT back in the lead. Sligo’s last two attempts rimmed out and LIT took the win.

Top Scorers

Sligo Institute of Technology

Zack Yonda – 47

Connor McClenaghan – 17

Tobi Brockmann – 13

Limerick IT

Matt Scamuffo – 52

Andrew Curiel – 20

K. Burchardt – 7

IT SLIGO: Yong Yit Chan, Zach Yonda, Philip Hamilton, Connor McClenaghan, Evan Broderick, Michael  Tapia, Aaron Clarke, Tobi Brockmann,  Rasaki  Balogun, Patrick McCaffrey, Jack  McLoughlin.

LIMERICK IT: Ross Claire, Mark Shiels,  Jay-R Miranda, Van Angelo Paz, Emmanuel Babatunde, Matt Scamuffo, Adnan Ishaq, Krystian Burchardt, Callum  Wrixon, Dylan O’Dwyer, Liam DeCruz O’Faherta, Peter McNamara, Kyle Brisbane, Andrew Curiel, Rob Splawski