The cadet players from the Bower had a great victory when they emerged winners of the Cadet Midland Shield 2016. The shield was decided by a one day tournament which the Bower hosted on 21 January involving four teams in total.
Our Lady’s Bower took on Ard Scoil Rathangan in the first semi final of the day. The opening quarter was closely fought with the home team shading it by a single point. Scores came from Rebecca Armstrong, who got the opener, followed by
Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig and a free throw from Erifeowla Jamgbadi.
The Bower upped their defensive game in the 2nd quarter and took their chances well. Once again Rebecca Armstrong was the first to hit the net and Dara Jamil got in to get two rebounds and put them both in the basket. The youngest player on the team, Niamh McGann finished the quarter with a score of her own. Scores at half time: Our Lady’s Bower 15 – 9 Rathangan.
The host team grew in confidence in the second half and finished out the game in a very tidy manner scoring thirty one points to the visitors seventeen.
Having dispatched Rathangan in the semi final earlier on, Coach Des Reilly knew that his team faced an entirely different challenge in the final.
Ursuline Convent, Thurles had two big strong players on their team and they had used them to good effect in their semi final. The tall players for Ursuline did a lot of damage under the basket, scoring all 8 of their teams first quarter points. The home team could only manage one basket from Grace Halligan.
Not quite the start that the home team had hoped for but to their credit the Bower team don’t give up that easily and they settled well in the second quarter and set to work on improving the look of the score board. Our Lady’s Bower outscored the visitors 7 points to 4 in this period of play, much to the delight of their high spirited 1st and 2nd year supporters on the side line.
The score at half time: Our Lady’s Bower 9 – 12 Ursuline, Thurles.
Ursuline had done the damage in the opening quarter and Coach Des Reilly knew that if they had just a little luck and tagged on a few more points in the next quarter, they would be very hard to catch down the home straight. So when the Bower girls came out in the 3rd quarter they switched their defence to man to man. The only problem with this was that the two big Ursuline girls, both over 6 feet in height were being guarded by Amy Joyce and Grace Halligan, who are slightly less than 6 foot!
The tactical switch, however proved to be the right one.
Ursuline, clearly not used to being under this much pressure every time they got the ball, made simple mistakes, allowing the eager Bower guards Grace Halligan, Rebecca Armstrong and Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig to get possession and launch attacks on the undefended Ursuline basket.
The Bower girls raised the tempo of the game and the Ursuline girls struggled to deal with the speed at which the home team moved the ball. Scores in the quarter came from Grace Halligan, Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig and finally, Dara Jamil surprised everyone, including herself, when she caught the ball 15 feet from the basket, turned, shot and scored just as the buzzer sounded to end the quarter.
Scores at the end of the third quarter: Our Lady’s Bower 15 – 12 Ursuline.
During the interval, the home team Coach urged his team to keep up the intensity and the tempo and put the game beyond the reach of the visitors. The Bower team stuck to their task and made the most of the chances they created in the final seven minutes. Ursuline tried to force things to go their way but finally came up short as the buzzer sounded.
If there was a turning point in the game it was in the second half when the Bower players came out man to man and played what really was fast paced, simple and very enjoyable basketball.
The final score: Our Lady’s Bower 28 – 20 Ursuline, Thurles.
Squad: Grace Halligan, Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig, Rebecca Armstrong, Kayleigh McCormack, Aine Greene, Erifeowla Jamgbadi, Dara Jamil, Amy Joyce, Miranda McLoughlin, Niamh McGann and Una McNamara.