Greenhills net hat-trick
The all-conquering Senior A Division team from Our Lady's College Greenhills.
DEFENDING champions Our Lady's College Greenhills completed a unique hat-trick of consecutive SSA League triumphs at the National Basketball Arena last Thursday. Standing in the way of the Drogheda school's Senior A (Under-19) Division 1 team were St MacDara's from Templeogue, making their first appearance in the final for a number of years. A promising start saw Greenhills open up a 7-2 lead at the first break, with Amy Reilly firing them in front straight from the jump ball.
But MacDara's were not prepared to roll over and they fought back to within a single point at the halftime interval – 13-12.
A change in defensive tactics by coach Denise Rice saw Grace Rogers deny MacDara's top scorer from receiving the ball, which left the remainder of the team struggling to get to the boards.
The Greenhills guards pressured the ball and picked off steal after steal and ran in easy lay-ups, and their defence was such that MacDara's were only allowed score a single basket in the second half while the Boynesiders ran in a very impressive 31 points.
By the end of the fourth quarter the scoreboard read 44-14 and the celebrations began, with captain Gintare Petrauskaite collecting the trophy on behalf of her team. There was further joy when Amy Reilly was named the Most Valuable Player of the final, having scored 15 points.
But there were also tears as Greenhills' Cadette A and B teams both lost in their finals against Skerries CC and St MacDara's respectively.
