Our Lady’s Bower welcomed Cross & Passion Secondary School, Kilcullen, Co Kildare for their opening game of the 2019 season.
1st Years
Our Lady’s Bower 1st years opened their 2019 season with a very strong performance and a home win against Cross & Passion Secondary School from Kilcullen, Co Kildare. The home team got the ball up the court quickly with great rebounds from Martha McSharry who found Jillian Begley with two well aimed passes. Jillian went strongly to the basket and hit two fine scores. Georgia Munnelly then joined in with two more baskets, both off well weighted passes from Martha McSharry. The home team were in complete control in the opening quarter with Jillian Begley and Georgia Munnelly accounting for all 19 points scored by the Bower. The visitors were yet to find the net. The second quarter brought more of the same with Kenzi Francis, Amy McGovern and Lydia Mulvihill adding another 14 points for the Bower. Cross & Passion struggled to make any headway but did manage to find the net with one basket and a free throw. Scores at the half time buzzer; The Bower 33. Cross & Passion 3. The second half was much the same as the first, with the Bower controlling every aspect of the game. Keeping the visitors to 4 points in the half the Bower pushed further ahead with scores from Sarah McNamara, Martha McSharry, Georgia Munnelly, Kenzi Francis, Lydia Mulvihill and Jessica Frawley. Unfortunately, Cross & Passion were no match for the Bower girls and the game ended with a score of 59 points to 7 in favour of the Bower.
Players for Our Lady’s Bower: Martha McSharry, Jessica Frawley, Jillian Begley, Lydia Mulvihill, Anna Mai Bouker, Portia Quaye, Amy McGovern, Sarah McNamara, Kenzi Francis & Georgia Munnelly.
Not to be outdone by the 1st years, the 2nd Years wanted to keep the winning streak going, so they set to their task 
from the tip off. The speedy Katie Boyle drove at the opposition and came away with two fine scores. When the defence tried to stop Katie she slipped the ball inside to Fiona Zhang, who cut straight through the middle for two more scores. One more from Katie and one from Jillian Begley finished the scoring for the 1st quarter. 12 points in total for the Bower, with Cross & Passion only a single score behind with 10. The only bad thing to happen in the first period was that Katie Boyle injured her ankle and had to sit out the remainder of the game. The second five entered the game with two of the three first years playing up an age group. Now on the floor, they promptly went to work on wearing out the scoreboard. With Kenzi Francis making good on almost every shot and Georgia Munnelly hoovering up rebounds they stretched the Bower lead to 27 points to 12 at half time. The second half proved to be a complete contrast to the first. The visitors threw on a full court press and started to build a line of scores to get them back into the game. They had found the key to unlock the Bower defence. In a battle that went at full speed, end to end, the visitors closed the gap and with less than a minute left in the game they had it down to 2 points. Every play, every score, every mistake from here on was critical. With nothing going their way, the Bower were up against it. Jillian Begley took some of the tension away with a super shot from 16 feet away, followed shortly by Doireann Ní Ruairc who missed a shot, got her own rebound and put it back in the basket. This left Cross & Passion 2 points down with 6 seconds to score. The Bower defence remained rock solid and the buzzer had the last say. The game ended with the Bower up by a single basket. The score, 35 to 33. Great determination, discipline and absolute effort won the game for Our Lady’s Bower on the day. Well done to all the players and their coach, Des Reilly.
Players for the Bower: Jillian Begley, Nicole Kelly, Katie Boyle, Georgia Munnelly, Rebecca Coffey, Kenzi Francis, Fiona Zhang, Katie Broderick, Maria McLynn, Doireann Ní Ruairc, Nicole Gallagher, Nini Collins, Amelia Halpin & Isabelle Quinn.