2024: Northern Ireland Men v Baldwin Wallace (Ohio): Cleveland NI Project Challenge Series: 13Aug24

Full Game
NI Select Men 102-86 Baldwin Wallace
Qtrs: 30-15, 25-19, 29-18,18-24

As part of a Cleveland NI Challenge Series - to mark the final week of three weeks of Cleveland sponsored Hard2Guard camps - a Northern Ireland Select Mens team competed against NCAA Div 3 College side Baldwin Wallace (Cleveland Ohio).

Baldwin Wallace were in Ireland for a 12 days tour with both their mens and women's teams. The men would go on to play an Ireland Select team on Thursday 15th August - while Baldwin Wallace's Women played a NI Select Womens team on both dates.

Adrian Fulton selected his NI squad - which included young Phoenix BC players Fiontan Rogers and Callum Keys as well as Phoenix Wolves U20s coach and BIDL player Ryan Berger.

Rolandas Bartkus, Tom Trainor and Tom Fraserr (visiting referee from Cleveland) refereed the game. Jim Martin, Malachy Kearney, Natalie Call and Roger Burrows were the table officials.

In this game the NI Men started strongly with the starters of Paul Dick, Conor Quinn, Aidan Quinn, Oisin Kerlin and Ryan Berger hitting their straps early - while Baldwin Wallace struggled to find their rhythm. At the end of Q1 the NI Men led 30-15 with Ryan Berger and Paul Dick scoring regularly.

In Q2 the visiting Americans started to mix up their game a bit more - attacking the basket more regularly - and the new strategy paid off as they won Q2 25-29 - with Caden Hudak and Ray Ellington showing up well at the offensive end.

NI Men took a 55-44 lead into the second half. In Q3 the NI Men stemmed Baldwin's momentum from Q2 with some good defence and regular scoring - with seven different scorers.

A 84-62 lead at end of Q3 meant that the game was probably beyond the visitors but they didn't relent and to their credit they won Q4 18-24 with Max Dickinson, Nick Timberlake and and Caden Madigan contributing most of the points in the final period.

Adrian Fulton was very happy with his side's performance - with the Cleveland NI Project's Ryan Berger top-scoring with 22 points in a MVP performance.

Tom Heil and his men will re-group for their game on Thursday against a Ireland Select team that will be sure to challenge them once again.


TEAMS + SCORERS
NI MEN: Ryan Berger (22), Conor Quinn (18), Max Richardson (14), Paul Dick (14), Callum Keys (12), Aidan Quinn (8), Adam Ryan (6), Oisin Kerlin (6), Shane O'Connor (2), Jake McCotter, Fiontan Rogers
Head Coach: Adrian Fulton

BALDWIN WALLACE: Maxx Dickinson (16), Ray Ellington (15), Andrew Griffith (10), Titus Baskerville IV (9), Caden Madigan (9), Brayden Hamilton (6), Nick Timberlake (6), Caden Hudak (6), Myłeś Reynolds (5), AJ Pestello (4), Landon Potopsky, Avery Young, Josh Pinero
Head Coach: Tom Heil