UCD Marian Head Coach, Fran Ryan, hailed the defensive part of his side’s game as they comfortably beat Ulster Elks by virtue of a 75-43 scoreline.

For Elks, to score a mere 43 points was sure to make the trip back to Belfast quite a distressing one however the inability to overcome Marians zone defence could be food for thought during the trip home. The same zone defence seems to have been adopted by a number of teams as a way to keep American, Ben de la Cruz and Irish star, Kevin Foley to small numbers. Moycullen and Killester both played a tough zone and Elks offence simply had no answer. Guard Barry Drumm, a former UCD Marian player, consistently turned the ball over and failed to use his team mates during the offences.

However Elks shortcomings should not deter from the fact that UCD Marian put up a fantastic performance with American, James Crowder only 3points away from a triple double! Once again Conor Meany stepped up and was mo match for the Elks guards.Even without the James brothers and forward, Barry Glover, absent on the night through injury, Marian was able to call on other players that played strong and aggressive defence and offence. This included guard, Ciaran Dunne coming on to score a three pointer late in the fourth much to the delight of the crowd!

“One of our problems recently has been in defence but we put a huge amount of work into it and put on a great show against Elks,” said Coach Fran Ryan. “We were without the likes of Barry Glover and Dan James but we have players in the squad that warrant time on the court and they showed it against Elks. “We stopped them playing which was the key,” he added. “We want to reach the Play-off’s and this is another step in the right direction.”

The win maintains the pressure on Northern Conference leaders 11890 Killester. Marian travel to Cork next week in what is sure to be an exciting cross conference clash against Neptune.