Ten points down, a few men down and with the clock ticking away…
Not a bother on Kieran Donaghy and the Tralee Warriors.
The Star has always been known as a clutch player and on Saturday night, he came good with the pressure at its highest again. With four minutes to go in their big Super League clash against UCD Marian, the men of Tralee were down four key men. Three of them had fouled out and one left the court injured.
In truth, with the end of regulation time approaching, the Warriors looked dead and buried.
Write these lads off at your peril though.
It was left to Donaghy and five other homegrown Tralee Warriors to get the comeback going and boy did they relish the pressure. Donaghy was fouled with Pat Price’s men down by one and the resultant free-throw saw the 36-year-old level it up at 80 apiece to send the game into overtime in an increasingly gripped UCD arena.
And with the momentum behind them, Garvey’s warriors kicked on again. Rapolas Buivydas nailed a big free throw to give them the lead and by the time Donaghy set him up with an inbound moments later, the game was already over.
Just look at the excitement after he dropped it.
Full time after overtime Men's Super League it's @UCDMarian 84 @warriors_bc 89 #ThisIsSuper @ballsdotie pic.twitter.com/LS6dPxqmTM
— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) March 23, 2019
That means the Warriors can seal their Super League win on Sunday in the Tralee Sports Complex but before then, Donaghy gave his immediate reaction to Basketball Ireland after the game.
And there was a man pumped up.
“UCD are champions for a reason – they’re a really good team. I can’t really explain it,” he said emotionally.
“Five Tralee fellas at the end and we just scrapped. It looked like it was gone, and we could do nothing else but fight and scrap for it. Fergal made a big shot – he’s been making big shots all of his life – and that got us back into it.”
WATCH: An emotional @starryboy14 reacts to a heart stopping overtime win by @warriors_bc this evening #ThisIsSuper pic.twitter.com/h5iM6rxK50
— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) March 23, 2019
That’s what it’s all about.
