The U-14 A basketball team from Presentation Castleisland won the All-Ireland Schools’ Basketball League on Sunday 12th May in UL.
By defeating rivals, Portlaoise on the score 34/17 the team completed a unique double as in February they defeated the same opposition in the cup final in the National Arena, Tallaght.
A Double Double
The cup win was also a double as the school won the cup in 2018.
The girls achieved the win the hard way as on the Saturday four of the panel were on duty with the Kerry football U-14 team – they also won their blitz.
The rest of the panel dug deep and put in some mighty performances to win two of three pool games and qualify for the national quarter finals as pool runners up.
Titanic Struggle
The opposition was to be a pool winner and the team that beat the Pres girls in the Kerry semi-final, Mercy Mounthawk. After a Titanic struggle, with both teams playing tough ‘man to man’ full court defence, Presentation Castleisland won 14 points to eight.
16 Point Turn Around
The semi-final was against the Bower, Athlone. The Bower beat Presentation by 10 points in a pool game on Saturday. This time Presentation won 34/28, a 16 point turn around. A feature of this game was the tremendous shooting by one of the Bower girls who scored 18 points, including 4 three pointers.
Players’ Positive Contributions
The final was in fact one of the easiest game of the weekend as the Pres girls raced into a 15 point first quarter lead and were never threatened after that, winning 34/17.
All players contributed positively to yet another win at national level.
Great Season Wrapped
That wrapped up a great season for the school winning two national titles and one regional title, won by the second year team.
The win has also extended Coach Enright’s near incredible success rate with school teams stretching back over the past quarter of a century.
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