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EMYVALE

U 16 Girls: Blaze 25pts Donagh 42pts

The under 16 girls travelled up to Letterkenny early on Sunday morning with the help of parents Paul Carey and Liz McPhillips and were well rewarded for the journey with 3 winning points and more importantly a good performance.

Aisling and Laura McPhillips, Harriet O Connor, Andrea Rafferty and Emile McKenna were out first and came to grips with the home side from the start. The zone defence was tight and they broke with purpose, Emile opening the scoring with one such break. All the girls in this quarter subsequently scored as they ran up a lead of 12pts to 3pts.

Katie Curley, Emile O Donaghue, Laura Carey, Ciara McCarron and Rebecca Hughes stepped in for the second quarter and again were the much better side. Blaze have lost quite a few players from last year and aren’t quite as good but the Monaghan girls still had to put the scores on the board. Laura and Rebecca got similar baskets as they both broke down the court for lay-ups. Emile and Ciara both put in a free shot each. Maire replaced her cousin Ciara and was impressive and Rebecca added another shot. Maire finished the quarter on a high with a good lay up to leave the half time score at 22pts to 7pts.

The first quarter five started this period again and were a little careless, a few travelling and 3 second violations were called and Blaze popped in a basket and a free shot and they missed quite a few more. A time out was called and any thoughts of Blaze coming back into the game were stamped on. Donagh went back out and scored 3 or 4 baskets in a row. They finished the quarter strongly and led by 34pts to 12pts.

Blaze out scored Donagh in the last quarter by 5pts but the game was over as a contest. This was a good all round team performance with Emile, Rebecca and Laura Carey in top form. Ciara, Harriet and Maire were all brilliant when asked to play in unaccustomed positions. It’s early on in the season and the girls are working well and playing well, let’s hope it continues.

Team and scorers: Rebecca Hughes 8pts, Emile McKenna 6pts, Harriet O Connor 6pts, Aisling McPhillips 6pts, Laura McPhillips 4pts, Laura Carey 4pts, Ciara McCarron 3pts, Maire McCarron 2pts, Andrea Rafferty 2pts, Emile O Donaghue 1pt, Katie Curley.