The Titans Basketball Club had a very busy Mid term break last week. Besides winning vital National league games,organising two full days of competitive underage Basketball, involving local clubs, Maree, Moycullen, plus Sligo and Ballina, having had 42 of their members arrive back into Galway from Sweden and Norway earlier that morning, their u15 and u16 squads( 30), traveled 6,400 kms, to play six games and attend two Coaching schools in Lithuania!Quite uniquely the Titans squads were representative of every secondary school in Galway City and indeed they represented their alma maters and their schools coaching, valiantly.Day 1, with the boys having traveled 3,200 kms that first day,the Titans u15 Boys get first International win by 27 points against the Snaiperais Basketball school U14 boys,(European free throw champions)!!Jake Tiernan, Rory O’Neill and Eoin Coughlan setting the tempo and running this transition game in a high speed, straight out of the blocks performance, under the careful guidance of seasoned coach Matt Lint(N.Z.).The other St.Endas boys Barry O’Gorman and Galway Community Colleges-Evidas used the baseline well and scored some nice hoops from some fine Pesaitis back screens. But it was this man Kenneth Pesaitis that stole the show..now returning to home turf, he came as though on a mission to prove himself to the toughest crowd of all..”your own”-He did so, with strength and perseverance and hit over twenty points in his doing so! Go Titans!
The U16’s played their Aisciai rivals in a tough opener at the Kaunas Basketball school. Aisciai, had beaten the local young guns Tornado recently to establish themselves as a formidable local side comprised of International players and the children of former professionals.The Titans relied heavily on the scoring prowess of Kenneth Pesaitis; Ronan Mc Keown and Conor Byrne to make inroads into the full court defense of the Kaunas School.However,despite the trojan defense of the Irish boys and the 38 point contribution of Johnathan Pesaitis, the perimiter shooting of “all” the Aisciains, who hit over twenty three pointers, left the visitors waving at shadows and on the wrong end of a 99-65 point scoreline.However, the Galweigans knew they had performed well and looked forward to the next game with anticipation.
Day 2-Titans u15 Boys played Aisciai u14’s in a thriller at the historic Kaunas Basketball School. Eoin Coughlan and Jake Tiernan led the charge and Kenneth, Evidas and Kenneth Pesaitis delivered both defensively and on the offensive end, Vitor jumped out of the gym to chase down every loose ball and pulled off some impressive crossovers on his way to the basket.Rory O’Neill tortured the Lithuanian defensive with his left handed Slashing to the hoop, the Grealish boys Aaron and Ruarai, hit some points from the elbows, Mark Devaney nailed a coffin shot from the baseline while Barry O’Gorman and new boy Joseph Tinney and Oisin Dolan defended bravely and fought and dove on every loose ball to ensure the Titans u15’s of their second victory on foreign soil. Aisciai 36 Titans 55, Kenneth -26pts as part of a triple-Double of rebounds,assists and scores.
The Titans u16’s were returning to take on an u15 side of Aisciains who could drain the threes and run the floor with equal abandon but lacked the physicality of their peers on the previous encounter.While Johnathan hit his usual 26 points, which included five three pointers, nobody had foreseen the difference Bish Boy, Ronan Mc Keown would make in this ferocious encounter.Instead of his usual swingman routine, Mc Keown spread the defense wide and tore them apart for thirty points of his own.Kyle Walsh, David Dylan and Bruce Silva won the battle of the boards and enjoyed the support of Luke Plamer who had two mighty Blocks ( as he would say himself..he was lucky not to get called for goal tending haha).Evan Mc Hugh handled well and Colie Collins managed the mid court and contributed majorly on the assists stats.
Day three, the Titans having first attended training at the Sports university dedicated to the development of professional athletes and proud members of the first Division professional Basketball league alongside fellow Kaunausians Zalgeris, were then given a Civic reception by Mayor Andreas, to mark this Historic occasion on behalf of the city of Kaunas.The mayor was presented with letters of appreciation from Galway Mayor Terry O’Flaherty and letters of support from Jason Craughwell of the Galway Sports Partnership.The Mayor informed the Galweigans that No Irish Team have ever come to play them before and actually went on to say how unique an occassion this was in the history of Sport in Lithuania.The Titan delegation-Lithuanian Sports-Kaunas City Fathers- included, Tony Cahill;Denis O’Brien;Matt Lint;Aidas Pesaitas;Joe Coughlan Mayor Andreas;Lucia;Dep Mayor and Edgaras.
In the afternoon the Titans u16 squad under the tutilage of Coach Joe Coughlan, went to play against the mighty ..Arvydas sabonis basketball school (reportedly, last seasons European champions ) and although the Titans were up against it and down twenty at the half, they persevered to record one of the mightiest performances of any Titan teams in our short history.David Dylan was his usually athletic self, Kenneth p. and Eoin Coughlan defended like there was no tomorrow. They threw on and maintained a full court press for the whole second half trying to unsettle the flawless three point game of their adversaries ( 10 three pointers from 8 players by the half).Kyle Walsh, Luke Palmer, Colie, Conor,were all wasted by games end from trapping and harassing their opponents.So impressive was their full court defense that they won the third quarter and leveled the fourth to end the game- Sabonico KC 66, Titans 48.Johnathan 30(5x 3’s);Ronan 9(3×3’s),Bruce 6;Conor 2,kenneth 2.
On the other side of town in the Rapid area of Kaunas the u15’s were taking on Sporto Maniya with Aidas Pesaitas as their mentor.The u16’s caught a bus to the game to get Kenneth and Eoin Copughlan on court against this sharpshooting side.The Titans went down to an early 11 point deficit until Mark Devaney opened the scoring for the visitors!Titans played a stingy defense led by Joseph Tinney and the Grealish boys, in the second half but the triadic Boardsmanship of Kenneth,Evidas and Ladmy Sila, brought new hope in the wake of Rory O neills unfortunate knee injury.In fact the Titans won the 3rd quarter and leveled the fourth losing out 54-36 at the whistle despite a gallant and brave performance which was met by a standing ovation from the overly appreciative locals.!Overall the u15’s put in a heroic performance and had recorded two victories and one loss for the Tour!
Overall, the Tour was an enormous success both for the development of players;Coaches; new links and indeed for the development of the game of Basketball locally and Internationally.
by -Joe Coughlan
Note -for four and a half minutes coverage by Lithuanian T.V. Check out the following link.
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