Senior Girls’ Basketball Win Regional Final
Our senior girls have gone from strength to strength this year, led by a strong core of Form VI pupils – Abbie Murray (Captain), Sarah Cron, Raichael Murray, Elisa Bulla, and Lauren Ng. Their hard work and effort were rewarded last week (during exams) with a comprehensive semi-final win over Holy Child Killiney. They then took to the floor a week later on Wednesday 29th November, in the East Region Final at the Oblate Hall in Inchicore against a team they had already met during the league campaign – Luttrellstown Community School.
The nerves were obvious in the early stages of the game, but they took a 9-2 lead in the first quarter with Holly Murray controlling the tempo and Laia Perich-Godo setting the pace with some excellent lay-ups. Luttrellstown fought back with some nice long-range shooting and the quarter ended 10-8.
The second quarter got off to a shaky start. The team’s offensive play was smooth with excellent ball moving, creating many easy scoring opportunities, but we could not finish. The lead was maintained through tough defense with an ending score 19-12.
The steadiness of team-play and overall confidence continued to build as the game progressed. Team defense was the decider on the day, fluid moving and talking limited Luttrellstown’s offense options to long-range shots. Sarah Cron, Elisa Bulla, AJ Ediale, and Abbie Murray were all excellent under the boards pulling down strong defensive rebounds, which ignited the fast break. The third quarter saw a surge in focus and energy from the girls. Molly Mann was inspirational with her tough aggressive defense, and tenacious drives to the basket. AJ Ediale was superb from the free-throw line and the third quarter ended with a 33-24 comfortable lead.
Luttrellstown started the 4th quarter with a full-court press and the team took a few minutes to adjust to the pressure, making a number of silly turnovers, which luckily did not result in any scores. Once they regained composure, Holly Murray took to the helm and pushed the ball upcourt, creating numerous scoring opportunities with Molly Mann, AJ Ediale, Laia Perich, and Sarah Cron hitting some impressive scores.
The last four minutes of the game were dominated by strong defensive play, Raichael Murray and Molly Mann worked hard to contain their key shooter. With 2 minutes to go, Henrike Tertilt made an impressive steal and followed it up with a super long-range past to Giulia Trolese for an easy 2 points and ending with the team notching up a 20-8 score line in the 4th for a 49-30 victory.
The entire team worked as a unit, with everyone stepping up and making excellent contributions are various stages throughout the game. This was the first time we had reached this level of competition and winning the title, well that was the icing on the cake.
Laia Perich-Godo (24pts), Molly Mann (6pts), Aj Ediale (6pts), Abbie Murray (3pts), Holly Murray (4pts), Sarah Cron (2pts), Giulia Trolese (2pts), Safia Walker (2pts), Raichael, Murray, Elisa Bulla, Lauren Ng (Illness, DNP)
