Our Lady’s Bower U/19s travelled to Kilcullen in Co. Kildare on Fri 25th October to play game 3 of the Midlands A under 19 league. Both teams started brightly, warming up the scoreboard with Cross & Passion scoring 16 points in the opening quarter and the Bower girls trailing by one on 15 minutes. Grace Halligan accounted for 9 points, all from outside the three point line, Rebecca Armstrong had one and Kelly Colgan and Niamh McGann had a basket each.
In the second quarter the Bower changed to man to man defence, pressuring the home side into mistakes. Kilcullen managed 13 points by half time but could not compete with the Bower’s 22. Faith Greene hit a three point score followed by an 18 foot jump shot from her favourite corner. Kelly Colgan made two nice cuts to the basket to finish with two scores. Keeva Reid made another from the corner and Grace Halligan added another 11 points, 9 of those from outside the three point line. The change in Defence had been the right move for the Bower. It had upped the tempo and allowed them to gain a foothold in the game.
The Bower girls were expecting a backlash from the home team and they got it in the second half. Cross & Passion put on a full court press, looking to steal the ball at every opportunity but the three 6th years on the team, Grace Halligan, Rebecca Armstrong and Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig, all showed great composure and passed their way out of the press and up the court to their team mates for open shooting opportunities. In review Cross & Passion did not really profit from the full court press, only scoring 7 points in the quarter. The Bower managed 15 with three point scores from Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig and Grace Halligan.
The home team gave it one last trojan effort in the remaining quarter, throwing everything they had at the Bower. To be fair they held the visitors to 11 points whilst scoring 15 themselves. The Athlone girls had done the damage earlier in the game and Kilcullen could not close the gap. The Bower saw out the remaining time on the clock with Faith Greene, Keeva Reid and Rebecca Armstrong all scoring from under the basket. Team Captain, Grace Halligan, led by example all over the floor, scoring 7 three point shots, to finish with a total of 26 points. She was the top scorer in the game.
Bower U/19s Squad: Faith Greene, Grace Halligan, Kelly Colgan, Rebecca Armstrong, Niamh McGann, Alanna Nic Ghiolla Phadraig, Keeva Reid, Una McNamara, Hannah Dickie and Caoimhe Lawless.