The atmosphere in Mallow Youth Centre last Thursday night was electric when two games were held.
The Mallow under 12 girls started, as they always do, taking the game to their opponents and put Crosshaven under pressure from the word go and built up a fantastic lead. These girls had a brilliant win over their opposition, Crosshaven. This Mallow team have been unbeaten in the league, winning eight games so far. The first five on the court were Chloe Ferris, Fiona Stanton, Beverley Hayes, Zainab Balogen and Sarah O’Keeffe. Mallow steamed ahead and left Crosshaven well behind, scoring 16 points. With only 19 seconds to go on the clock, Fiona Stanton added another two points, bringing the score to 18 points to 4 in favour of Mallow.
Crosshaven settled into the game during the second quarter and started to fight back and brought the score much closer. The Mallow girls had to step up their game to hold on to their lead and the scoring at the end of the second quarter was 22 points to 14 points.
The second half was as exciting as the first with the Mallow girls displaying great talent and consistency, scoring basket after basket. This is an amazing team, who show great team spirit and dedication. They travelled to Cobh on Saturday and went on to win again.
Congratulations to the Ladies Division 2 team, who beat Midleton by eight points on Thursday night in the Mallow Youth Centre. This was the first game that the newly formed Mallow team played under their coach, Noel O’Connor.
The game got off to a flying start for Mallow when Caroline O’Leary scored the first basket of the game. This was closely followed by another basket from Carolyn O’Mahony. Midleton were a strong team and their defence was outstanding and managed to score 2 points. Sinead Ferris added another 2 points to the Mallow score just before the end of the first quarter, bringing the score to 6 points to 2 in favour of Mallow.
Mallow managed to score 6 points in the second quarter and Midleton were starting to come back into the game, also scoring 6 points. The scoring was low because both teams were excellent in defence, making it difficult for the opposition to get ahead. The 6 points for Mallow were scored by Nora O’Donoghue, Caroline O’Leary and Maura Murphy.
These girls were replaced in the third quarter by Eilis Finn, Fiona Downes, Regina Sheehan, Pam McNamara and Michelle O’Sullivan. The game was getting quite physical, at this stage, but Mallow still hung on to the lead, scoring 6 points in this quarter as well.
Fouling became a problem for both teams in the final quarter. Mallow and Midleton were both on team fouls and the pressure was intense. Mallow were the stronger team and this was probably their best quarter as they managed to get well ahead of the Midleton girls by scoring a further 11 points.
The final score on the night was 29 points to 21 in favour of Mallow. Top scorer on the night was Nora O’Donoghue, scoring 11 points. Well done ladies!
We would also like to thank Tom and Sandra Mannix (Mannix School of Motoring) who kindly sponsored this team and attended the match.
The under 18 girls played Carrigaline last Saturday in the second leg of their league fixtures in Crosshaven. Carrigaline started the stronger team, scoring 6 points without reply. Our girls then settled into the game and at the end of the first period trailed by 6 points. The second quarter was more evenly matched with Carrigaline scoring 12 and Mallow scoring 10. The third quarter saw Mallow in superb form hitting two 3 point shots, coupled with some nice steals and fast break scores, taking 15 points in total for this period to leave them in a strong position going into the last quarter, only trailing by 3 points.
However, Carrigaline again took control and, in spite of our best efforts, we were outperformed on the day by strong opposition.
Mallow under 14 girls faced Waterford Wild Cats at Mallow Youth Centre on Saturday. The first five for Mallow were Sinéad O’Mahony, Triona Carroll, Shannon Egan, Aisling Butler and Tara Buckley. The Waterford team pulled ahead from the beginning and Mallow had to work hard to try and catch up. Excellent rebounding by Sinead O’Mahony and passes to members of her team worked in Mallow’s favour and Shannon Egan made sure she got ahead of the Waterford team to receive passes and go on to score. Triona Carroll added another two points at the end of the first quarter, bringing the score to 6 points to 10 in favour of Wild Cats.
The second quarter was played by Grace Flynn, Megan O’Connor, Aisling Finn, Maeve Burke and Ciara Carroll. Great defence was shown by the Mallow team during this quarter. There was fantastic passing around the zone which led to fouls being drawn and Mallow being awarded shots. Grace Flynn played a brilliant quarter, continuously intercepting the ball and successfully getting it into the net. Great ball-handling by Megan O’Connor, who took control in this quarter, put Wild Cats under pressure.
The Waterford girls won this match by 9 points in the end. The Mallow girls were disappointed as their form was off for this match. However, great credit has to be awarded to Shannon Egan and Grace Flynn for their brilliant performances during this game. Shannon had her best game of the season, scoring 20 points.
On Monday night the Mallow under 10 and under 11 boys had matches in the Youth Centre. They both played against Douglas teams, known as St. Anthony’s. Both teams faced tough competition against their opponents, but they put up a great battle and did the club proud. Well done boys!
Mallow Basketball Club would like to thank the three Neptune Superleague players, Ger Noonan, Ron Thompson and Gary Walsh, who attended Mallow Youth Centre last Sunday to coach all players in the 13-18 age group. This was a fantastic training session for all who participated and we look forward to organising another one of these events.