Defending IWA Cup champions Rebel Wheelers defeat Southeast Swifts 65-28 in semi’s

Defending champions Rebel Wheelers are into the IWA Cup final, after defeating Southeast Swifts 65-28 at Neptune Stadium on Saturday. They will face Limerick Celtics in the final in two weeks’ time, after they won their last four decider against Killester IWA 52-35 at Upper Glanmire.

Rebel Wheelers led from start to finish in this game, holding a 28-13 advantage by half-time and never looked back. Derek Hegarty was among a number of players who caught the eye with a 15 point  haul, with the scoring evenly spread - Conor Coughlan and Dylan McCarthy posted 11 points each, while there was 10 apiece for Jack Quinn and Darragh O’Regan. 

Player/coach Pat O’Neill and Jake Hennessy were the dangermen for Southeast Swifts, hitting 15 and 11 points respectively, as they fought to get their team back into contention, but Rebel Wheelers proved to be too strong.

Former Neptune player Adam Drummond, playing in his first IWA Cup campaign, had two points on the day and speaking afterwards he said: “We had to take care of business. This is our home venue in a way, we’ve had a couple of training sessions here (at Neptune Stadium) over Christmas, so we said we would use that as an advantage. We knew if we stuck to our game plan that Alan (Dineen) and Jerry (O’Regan) gave us, we were going to win.”

💬 “𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲.”@adamdrum09 and @RebelWheelers through to the @Insuremyhouseie @IWASport #BINationalCup final after a 65-28 victory over Southeast Swifts. 🏀 pic.twitter.com/Ns1mLFDwOr

— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) January 7, 2023

Quarter Scores:

Q1: 14-5, Q2: 28-13 Q3: 44-24, Q4: 65-28

Rebel Wheelers:

Conor Coughlan, Jack Quinn (c), Yacine Soubabe, Alex Hennebry, Derek Hegarty, Conor Simpson, Oisin O’Connor, Jack Mangan, Darragh O’Regan, Dylan McCarthy, Adam Drummond, Sean Ryan

Head coach: Alan Dineen

Top Scorers: Derek Hegarty (15), Dylan McCarthy (11), Conor Coughlan (11), Jack Quinn (10), Darragh O’Regan (10)

Limerick Celtics:

Caoimhe Byrne, Melanie Griffith, Kevin Tully, Seamus Wall, Patrick O’Neill, Anthony Coy, Jake Hennessy, Aron Homan, Jamie Strappe, Robbie Roche, Adam Homan, Sophie Denieffe

Top Scorers: Patrick O’Neill (15), Jake Hennessy (11) Aron Homan (2)

Saturday, January 7th - Neptune Stadium

InsureMyHouse.ie IWA Cup semi-finals

Rebel Wheelers 65-28 Southeast Swifts

Saturday, January 7th – Upper Glanmire Sports Hall

InsureMyHouse.ie IWA Cup semi-finals

Killester 35-52 Limerick Celtics