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EMYVALE
U14 Girls
ULSTER LEAGUE BASKETBALL
BNI CHAMPIONS
Donagh 26 Tyrone Towers 22
For the second year running the Donagh under 14 girls proved to be to be the best
in Northern Ireland when they won a very tight final on Saturday. They defeated near
neighbours Towers from Dungannon in Queens PEC in what was a tense nervous match
between two evenly divided teams. The basketball never really flowed but what does
that matter when you come out the winners and the Donagh girls proved once again
to have “true grit” as they came from behind to claim the prize.
The most striking feature when the girls were warming up was the size of both teams, Towers looked like they had their under 16 side out but Donagh have some very tall powerfull girls too and when Ellen O Brien, Ciara McCarron, Hannah Gallagher, Rebecca Hughes and Ellen Mulligan stepped on the court they were a match for anyone. The first couple of minutes remained scoreless as both sides probed at each other, defence was on top with boxing out and rebounding the key skills on show, Ciara and Ellen O Brien were brilliant as they closed out Towers. After a good high post pass from Rebecca, Ellen opened the scoring, she then put Donagh 4-0 up from a rebound after a Hannah shot. The Monaghan side were shading it at this stage and could have been further ahead but Towers came back strong after a time out, H.Campbell scoring all 4pts for them. Ellen Mulligan who had a strong quarter scored a nice lay up to give Donagh the lead at the end of this period.
Amy Hamill, Laura McPhillips, Emile O Donaghue, Verity O Connor and Eimear McAnespie came on for Donagh in the second quarter. After a super piece of defending by Laura to deny Towers in the first few seconds one would have assumed Donagh were secure, but it was downhill from here as the Donagh girls picked up fouls and turned over ball time and again. E. Lafferty took advantage and drew the sides level and then took the lead for the first time in the match with as shot from R. Murty. If they had have scored any of their free shots Donagh would have been in real trouble as they were on team fouls after 3 minutes, in fact Donagh picked up 11 fouls in this quarter. Hannah Clerkin replaced Verity but Towers forged ahead with 2 more baskets from E. Laferty; score was 12pts to 6pts. The only good thing in this quarter from a Donagh point of view was they never give up, they kept on working and fighting and were rewarded with an Amy Hamill shot which give Donagh a lifeline, half time score was 12pts to 8pts.
Ciara, Rebecca, Hannah Gallagher, Ellen O Brien and Ellen Mulligan came back on for the third quarter and the first basket would set the tone, Donagh needed to get it. Ellen O Brien scored after an inter change between herself and Ciara. Rebecca followed this up with a shot to bring the sides level and Ellen Mulligan restored Donagh’s lead with a lay up despite half of Tyrone hanging out of her. This was a blistering comeback and Donagh were on top both offence and especially in defence where the twin towers Ellen and Ciara won every rebound, from a Towers point of view this had to be stopped. They took a time out and responded with a basket after the restart. Amy Hamill replaced Hannah and put Donagh ahead again with a shot, then Rebecca who was first back to recover a loose ball turned and drove straight through the middle of the Towers defence to score, Donagh were ahead by 4. The shouting and cheering died down slightly when E. Lafferty reduced the lead to 2pts just before the break. Score was 18-16.
As the last quarter began Donagh knew the first basket would be crucial, Donagh had been in the ascendancy in the previous period and they would not want Towers coming back into it. Ciara stepped up and put away a great rebound but Lafferty replied for the Tyrone side. Towers were playing a full court press and provided Donagh could get the ball out of their own half quickly enough the Donagh girls could drive at them one on one. Ellen Mulligan did just that and made it 22-18. Towers weren’t for giving in and scored again. After a time out where the Towers press was addressed and some changes were made, Rebecca took a difficult looking shot from the side of the court, it took an age to drop but it did and that brought the score to 24-20. With Towers reaching team fouls more free shots were inevitable but the Donagh free shooting was atrocious, not one out of 12 free throws was converted up to this point so when Rebecca was awarded 2 everyone squared up for the rebound, there was no rebound this time and both shots were scored beautifully. With time running out for Towers this 6pt margin might be enough, despite a terrible unsportsmanlike foul called on Ellen Mulligan and E. Lafferty converting two shots it was enough and Donagh won by 26pts to 22pts.
The better team won on the day and Captain Rebecca Hughes claimed the cup for Donagh.
Team and Scorers: Rebecca Hughes 8pts,Ellen O Brien 6pts, Ellen Mulligan 6pts, Amy Hamill 4pts, Ciara McCarron 4pts, Hannah Clerkin, Eimear McAnespie, Hannah Gallagher, Verity O Connor, Laura McPhillips, Emile O Donaghue.
U.14 Girls Donagh V Tyrone Towers 1.45pm
Later on in this action packed Finals day Donagh will take on near neighbours Tyrone Towers in the under 14 girls. This will be another cracker of a final and a repeat of the Under 13 Final played last year in Lisburn. Donagh won that game comfortably and were crowned champions but Towers have improved tremendously since then. They came up to Monaghan and beat Donagh by 35pts to 27pts back in November and Donagh have been looking forward to getting another crack at them since.
The Dungannon team are coached by Ronan Campbell who has nothing to learn about basketball, he has a good team and they are backed up by a great Towers set up that are on the go 30 years or more. They would have dominated girl’s junior basketball for years and they would certainly see Donagh as something of the upstart. Their girls are tall and strong and it is fairly obvious that they play a lot of Gaelic Football as well; they also have a wonderful talent in Emer Lafferty who will give all on the day and keeping her quiet may be the key.
The Donagh girls are coached by Enda O Brien and Bronagh Hamill, Enda is an experienced coach having worked with community games teams for years, in league basketball this will be his fifth Ulster Final having won all 4 other finals he has coached in. Older people will remember his exploits as a shooting forward for Team Mona. Bronagh, we talked about in the 13 girls will be clued in to the girls thinking on the day and will get them fired up.
The Donagh girls are very experienced with all of them bar Hannah Clerkin who is new to the club this season in their second final and a large number playing in their third final in a row. Four of the girls Verity O Connor, Ellen Mulligan, Amy Hamill, and Eimear McAnespie will have played earlier in the 13 final and this may have an influence on the game. Donagh have power in their ranks too with Emile O Donaghue, Ellen O Brien, Laura McPhillips and Ciara McCarron as strong and tall as anyone they could meet, combine this with the classy Rebecca Hughes and the tenacious Hannah Gallagher and Donagh are a match for anyone. This game could simply come down to who puts away their easy baskets and who takes more of them.
Again from all in the club and the wider community we wish them luck and would ask for as much support as possible. Ulster Finals in any sport aren’t that easily reached.
U. 14 Donagh 34pts Ulster Elks 31pts
On paper this game should have been a formality, Donagh were nearly 20pts better than the Elks up in Jordanstown when they met a few weeks ago but games aren’t won on paper and the Elks shook the Monaghan side to the core before eventually succumbing in the last quarter.
Ellen O Brien, Ciara McCarron, Rebecca Hughes, Hannah Gallagher and Ellen Mulligan started the first quarter and Ellen Mulligan scored straight from the tip down from Ciara. Donagh were making all the early running but just kept missing the target, there were about 5 close in chances missed plus free shots before Ciara eventually put in a rebound after a Rebecca drive. Donagh had total control of the boards and neutralised every Elks attack but were still only 4 up. It was left to Ciara to put in another rebound after 3 different girls failed on the one offence. After seeing so many chances spurned Elks were bound to take heart and they did, Anna Maguire scored with a shot but after a time out Ciara scored again for Donagh. When Elks hit back just before the break to make it 8pts to 4pts it gave a lie to the scoreboard, Donagh should have been 15pts ahead.
Emily O Donaghue, Laura McPhillips, Eimear McAnespie, Amy Hamill and Celine Nally were up next for Donagh and the home side capitalised straight away with some good work by Laura. Donagh had a height and strength advantage but you wouldn’t have thought so as Elks took control of the boards and scored from a rebound. The home defence was sloppy and Elks hit another 3ptsto leave just one point between them. Donagh were still squandering good chances from lay ups to rebounds but after a time out Amy scored a purposeful drive, the home side failed to punish Elks from the free throw line though after they hit team fouls. Elks took a time out and returned to score from a well practised inbound ball play, they took the lead for the first time with a 3pt shot and it was “game on”. Amy responded with a free shot and then set up Emily to turn and score, Donagh led going into the break by 15pts to 14pts.
Verity O Connor joined Amy, Rebecca, Ellen O Brien and Ciara for the 3rd quarter and after some early Elks free shots were missed Donagh pushed on. Rebecca, Ellen and Amy all scored but failed to put a number of free shots away. When Amy broke the ball and set Rebecca up to put Donagh ahead by 23pts to 14pts you would have been forgiven for thinking it was over, but with over 4minutes left in this period Verity hit her 4th foul and put Donagh on team fouls. Every foul meant shots and this broke the Donagh momentum, they pegged back 3 free shots and a score to make it 23- 19 but they missed 6. Ciara and Verity both scored a free shot each to leave the score at 25-19.
Laura, Ellen O Brien, Rebecca, Hannah and Ellen Mulligan started the last quarter but Elks scored first to give them hope. Laura was fouled on a drive and she put one away for Donagh, but after that they seemed to loose their way. Elks scored 3 in a row to make it 27- 26 and the home side looked shaky. The play from both sides was frantic and fouls were being committed and the free shooting was generally poor, but Ellen O Brien put one away to make it 27 all. Elks made it 29-27 from a rebound, but after Rebecca missed her shots Ellen got the rebound and was fouled, and she put both away to level the game. With 3 minutes left a small bit of controversy broke out when the table flagged up a rules issue but after a short delay the game continued and Ellen put Donagh in the lead, Elks equalised after two sets of shots realised 2pts. Donagh and their coaches were dealing with the pressure better than their visitors and Verity put the home side ahead again from the free throw line, Ellen O Brien added a basket and actually scored another just before the buzzer but this was incorrectly ruled out. Final score was 34pts to 31pts.
Team and Scorers: Ellen O Brien 9pts, Ciara McCarron 7pts, Amy Hamill 5pts, Rebecca Hughes 4pts, Laura McPhillips 3pts, Verity O Connor 2pts, Ellen Mulligan 2pts, Emile O Donaghue 2pts, Hannah Clerkin, Hannah Gallagher, Eimear McAnespie.