Dundalk Ravens recorded a great team performance on Saturday night to beat friendly rivals the Longford Torpedos. Longford where boosted with the return of John Ward from the US to partner his brother Jimmy in the attacking end for Longford. Though the Ravens where at full strength with two new additions in their ranks in DKIT rookie guard AJ O'Niel and Andrius Burba. Also playing his first game of the season was former underage star Aaron Lawless. In the first quarter the Torpedos showed their intend on winning the game by going eight points up in the first few minutes of the contest but the Ravens pulled back with some good team scores and individual scores from Mindi Savicius and Marius Jasiskas. Some strong rebounds by Andrius Burba and Darren McGovern set the Ravens on fast break which helped point guard Fu Faapito make some easy assists to others on the run. Though the fighting spirit of Longford led by point guard Mell McGirr never lay down and gave as good as they got on the offensive side. At the end of an exciting first quarter Longford led by 2 points.
In the second quarter the Ravens management gave AJ O'Neill his chance at point and he repaid this by scoring 9 quick fire points in the second quarter including a three pointer. The Ravens began to play some excellent passing basketball and this made the Longford defense very tired quickly. Scores from Aaron Lawless and Mindi Savicius and great defensive rebounding from Andrius Burba ment the Ravens out scored Longford by 11 points in the quarter to go up 9 points at half time.
At the beginning of the third quarter the Torpedos changed from zone defense to man to man but this didnt stop the Ravens scoring easily at times with good scores coming from Darren McGovern, David Maguire and John Rafferty. The Torpedos continued to keep up with the Ravens and their leading scorer Jimmy Ward (31) excelled and scored at times when he wanted. At the end of the third the score was 65-56 to the Ravens.
In the forth quarter the Ravens quickly put the Longford outfit out of sight with some great fast break scores and long range shooting. The starters where given a rest and the younger Ravens took charge of the last 7 minutes of the game and showing some great maturity and the Ravens ran out victorious 90-71. This win ment the Ravens stayed top of the North East Regional League with 4 wins and 1 loss. Next up is a tough away trip to Mullingar Dragons on Friday night.
Team and Scorers
Darren McGovern (4)
Fu Faapito
Tada Nerbastias
Mindi Savicius (26)
Aaron Lawless (11)
David Maguire (14)
AJ O'Neil (11)
John Rafferty (2)
Mateusz Karpinski
Marius Jasikas (11)
Andrius Burba (8)
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