Cadette team show senior girls the way

OUR Lady’s College’s Under-16 Cadette C team made a winning start to their season as they accounted for St Mary’s Baldoyle at the Drogheda venue on Tuesday last.

The Dublin side travelled with three teams and the first match on court was the Under-19 Senior A clash, with Our Lady’s looking for their first victory of the current campaign.

The hosts struggled from the start with Baldoyle’s zone-type defence and found themselves 8-2 down at the first quarter and 17-2 behind at the half-way stage after failing to score in a miserable second period.

Their defence improved in the third quarter, keeping Baldoyle scoreless, but they only managed to hit three points themselves through Aoife Howard and Garoa Villaverde and with no change in the overall balance of play the final score was 22-7, with huge improvement needed if the Drogheda girls are to make the semi-final play-offs.

Next to go on court was the Under-16 Cadette B team, with Our Lady’s again chasing their first win in Section B of the Division 2 league.

Chantelle Gallagher and Niamh Burke provided the first-quarter scores as their side trailed 6-4 after missing some excellent lay-up opportunities.

Although Hannah Woods and Kate Russell were making a nuisance of themselves in defence and Gallagher went on to register double figures, Baldoyle edged further ahead in the latter stages and ended up fairly comfortable 30-17 winners.

Thankfully the Cadette C team finished the day on a high note for Our Lady’s. This team, captained by Jennifer Hickey, also play in Division 2, in Section C, and after a nervous start and some missed scoring opportunities they were only 4-2 down at the first break, with Kellie Grendon claiming their only basket.

Our Lady’s settled down in the second quarter and Hickey and Catherine Malone opened their accounts to help their team eke out a 6-5 advantage.

The sides traded baskets in the next quarter, with the excellent Erin Floyd scoring her first-ever basket as she only took up basketball this year.

It was all to play for going into the final quarter, but after Ronke Olatinwo scored off the inbound play the team never looked back.

They went on to score another 14 points in this quarter, with Grendon outstanding, and it finished 26-15 to the host team, a result which will inject some confidence going into the remainder of the season.

SENIOR A: CADETTE B: CADETTE C: