East Coast FM announced on Sunday night's sports programme that the Pres Bray U-16 team were the winners of their Sports Star of the Month Award. The award was in acknowledgement of the team's All-Ireland 'A' Cup Final win in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght. The game was played against the prestigious basketball school, St. Fintan's, Sutton, on Tuesday last.

Fintan's forged ahead to take an early lead courtesy of baskets from Irish U-16 panellist Mikey Deegan and Conor McCracken.

Pres captain, Brendan O'Neill, responded with a three-pointer to kick the Pres team into action.

Some excellent man-to-man defence from Nicky Casey helped to stop the Fintan's scoring run. David Mackin, another Irish U16 player, made a superb low post move to score for Pres to finish the quarter 10-6 to Fintan's.

Invigorating words from Pres coach Marie O'Toole powered the team back onto the court with Brendan O'Neill sinking another three-pointer.

This reduced Fintan's lead to just one point. Top-notch play from Marc Lennon, a Leinster U-15 panellist, was to bring the Pres team back under control.

Lorcan Murphy, who also represents Ireland at U-16 level, scored an important point from the free throw line to level the score.

This gave the team the vigour needed to storm ahead. Further efforts from David Mackin, 2nd year Andy Bartley, who represents Ireland and Leinster, and Murphy maintained the Bray momentum.

Dean Cregan scored back-to-back baskets for Fintan's to cut the gap to two points. Murphy then took advantage of poor Fintan's defending with a splendid steal to lay up on the buzzer to leave it 20-16 to Bray at the interval.

With Ben Curran running a fast break for Pres at every opportunity, it wasn't long before they had increased their lead to eight points.

Jerome Westbrook must have had stern words with his team at a time-out as they re-emerged determined to break Pres' lead. Back-to-back baskets from McCracken, Deegan and Luke McGuinness put just a single basket between the sides.

It was then that Murphy went on a scoring spree and all Fintan's could do was look on as he clocked up ten points. A lay-up from teammate Bartley coupled with O'Neill breaking away in the dying seconds stretched Brays lead to 41-30 at the end of the third.

Two marvelous three-pointers from Gary Barron (Fintan's) and O'Neill (Pres) heightened the excitement of the last quarter. St. Fintan's were not giving up without a fight and rallied admirably after another Westbrook time-out.

But Pres handled the pressure well and kept the Northsiders at bay with outstanding defence from Bartley and Mackin. Murphy continued to prove difficult for the Fintan's defence with a fantastic solo run up the court to advance the score along to 4838. Despite closing baskets from Cregan and Dylan Kessie, it was not enough to deny Pres the title with a final score of 51-47.

The honour of MVP went to Lorcan Murphy who was top scorer of the game with 19 points.

It was certainly a magnificent honour for team captain, O'Neill, to lift the cup at the end to record the school's first major title at U-16 'A' level.

League hopes are high for this team and they'll be vying for a semi-final spot next Sunday in the hopes of completing a double.