The home team received a shock when St Mary’s of Naas arrived for the game, on view were the tallest players from any age group ever to play in Our Lady’s Bower, with four of the squad taller than any of the Bower team.
This would be a challenge. Naas played a zone defence to use their height to control the airspace around their basket and it proved very effective. Forcing the home team to shoot from outside and denying them any rebounds gave Naas a huge advantage. Scores after the first quarter were Our Lady’s Bower 4, Naas 7.
The second quarter was more of the same resulting in the score at half time being Our Lady’s Bower 12, Naas 17. Naas were playing on their terms and the Bower struggled but hung on to their coat tails until the final quarter.
With five points still between them it was now or never. The visitors were in no rush, they wanted to keep their shape and counterattack on the fast break. The Bower had to drastically increase the tempo, give them much less time to make decisions and make them feel the pressure. Full court, player to player, pressure defence is great to watch when it is done well and the Bower girls did it really well. Taking Naas out of their comfort zone, the pressure allowed the home side to get into their running game.
The lead was reduced to a single point and with less than 20 seconds on the clock you could have heard a pin drop as Eve Murphy shot the ball from the wing with it going into the basket. The noise of the cheering home supporters went through the roof and did not stop until the final buzzer ended the game, the final score reading Our Lady’s Bower 30 St. Mary’s Naas 29.
Having won all their pool qualifying games, the Bower side earned themselves a home semi-final on March 10. For a change their old adversaries Scoil Chriost Rí, Portlaoise, had not topped their group and had to travel to Athlone for the game. Both teams were nervous starting off with the Bower having the better chances but failing to convert them. Eabha McGlynn, Ellen McHugh and Niamh Purtill provided early scores to settle the home team coming up to the first break, score after the first quarter being Our Lady’s Bower 8 SCR Portlaoise 6.
The second quarter took much the same shape as the first with the Bower girls visibly more relaxed and producing some nice plays, with scores from Alyssa Glynn and Eugenia Fernandez the Bower started to pull away. The score at half time were 16–10 to OLB.
As is always the case, Portlaoise play very tough, physical full court defence for the entire game. The Bower matched their intensity at both ends of the court and Fernandez and McGlynn scored another eight points between them. The lead was now 10 points. With the Bower dictating the pace they pushed on with another six points from Eugenia Fernandez and the final say went to Anna McCourt, intercepting a Portlaoise pass she took off up the court to get the final score of the day. The final score, Our Lady’s Bower 31 SCR Portlaoise 19.
Raising and Giving in OLB
Our Lady’s Bower students have been doing their part to help local and national charities over the past number of weeks with a variety of fundraising campaigns held in the school.
Sixth yar students Nicole Gallagher and Saoirse O’Regan were the brains behind a really fun Colourful Sock Day. The girls came together to raise awareness and funds for two charities. Saoirse, being inspired by International Women’s Day, was fundraising on behalf of Ruhama, an Irish NGO that offers nationwide support to women impacted by prostitution, sex trafficking and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation, while Nicole was fundraising on behalf of the Roscommon branch of Down Syndrome Ireland. Nicole has a special connection to the Roscommon branch of the charity through her cousin Zoe. The day’s fun and colour raised €856 for the charities and both girls were thrilled with the support shown by their fellow students and Bower staff.
