Ladies Round up

Basketball Ireland Women’s Division 1

University of Limerick B.C. 53      Britton Insurance Donegal Town 59

Our Ladies have been very busy lately and got their first win on the road in the National League, an away win against the might of Ul in Limerick in a terrific performance by our girls. A score line of 59-53 gave us a 6pt win and for a while had Britton Insurance on top of the pile on the Division 1 league table. In our 2^nd season at this level this result was a big boost to all involved in the squad and made the long journey to Limerick worthwhile. Tara Khan was again the go to player for Donegal and with Clodagh Brennan finding her feet at this level and the drive and energy supplied by Kate Keaney this was an assured display, keeping the lead despite UL throwing everything at our girls they held out. Denise Bourne, Libby Duffy, Julianne Murphy and Brid Murphy also had big games for the North Western Girls. Team D Bourne 9, K Keaney 4, J Murphy 10, R Balezentyte, C Brennan 8, L Duffy 5, C Mc Hugh, T Khan 14, B Murphy 7. Coach K Sinclair, Manager S Campbell.

Britton Insurance Donegal Town 58       Oblate Dynamoes 69

After their great win on the road our girls had the vastly experienced Oblates to deal with in their next game at home. Having dropped out of last season’s super league to rebuild the Dublin giants proved too much for our girls despite running them very close. The Dublin side shot the lights out early on in the game and hit 6 three pointers though out. But Donegal’s Defence started to get to the shooters and kept themselves in the game. Again Tara Khan was our top player both in Defence and attack as she ended up with 21pts and countless steals. Libby Duffy had a terrific game both on the boards pulling down rebound after rebound and scoring with some lovely shots. Clodagh Brennan, Charlene Mc Hugh and Kate Keaney all had big games for the home team. Despite losing our girls showed they can compete with the best of them and with a little more luck could have taken the scalp of another big Dublin Club with our only win in last year’s campaign coming against Meteors. Letting the Dublin side out to an 8pt lead in the first proved our Girls downfall and we always chased this lead bringing it back to a basket late in the third. But the experience of the Dubs got them over the line. MVP for Donegal was Tara Khan with Charlene Mc Hugh, Clodagh Brennan and Libby Duffy also having great games. Team D Bourne, K Keaney 6, R Balezentyte, C Brennan 6, L Duffy 12, C Mc Hugh 7, T Khan 21, B Murphy, R Devaney 2 Katriona Coyle, Kelly Harron. Coach K Sinclair, Manager S Campbell.

North West League

LYIT Ladies 48 Britton Insurance Donegal Town 72

Our ladies headed over to LYIT on Wednesday night for one of the big games of the year in the local league. Having played and won 2 on the road in the league so far against Warriors and Kilcar this was a great win for the Girls. A tough opening quarter saw the Letterkenny side keep things tight but the experienced duo of Julianne Murphy and Libby Duffy got the scores to send Donegal in 14-9 up after the first. With our local league team backboned now by the u18s (we have to name 4 players from our National league side that can’t play local league along with another 4 who are structured link players so we have to dig deep for players leaving us with 4 senior players and 6 u18s) this was a great performance and in the 2^nd quarter Town pulled away winning 17-7 with Maeve Liston and Ruta Balezentyte scoring some lovely baskets along with a great performance form Kelly Harron and Brid Murphy on the boards. Claire Brady showed she has plenty to offer at this level too with a couple of nice outside shots and her usual great ‘D’ along with 18s captain Claire Breslin who also added greatly to the intensity in defence and also getting her 6pts. 24 -14 in the third all but wrapped up the win but a spirited last by the home team saw them win the quarter 18-17 but the result was never in doubt after the third. Julianne Murphy was MVP closely followed by Maeve Liston, Ruta Balezentyte Libby Duffy and Rosa Devaney who travelled all the way home from Belfast for the game. Team R Devaney 8, Charlene Mc Hugh, B Murphy 2, L Duffy 11, J Murphy 16, K Harron 2, C Brady 4, M Liston 14, R Balezentyte 11, R Mc Daid, C Breslin 6. Coach K Sinclair, Manager Sheila Campbell

Lastly our Men’s 2^nd team the Donegal Dragons went down by 11pts to LYIT Ravens in a great game over in Letterkenny Aura. With a few more games under their belt they will improve and it’s great to see our men’s teams and the Letterkenny men renew rivalry and playing in the same league again.

 Both our U18 sides played at the weekend with our Boys hosting Terry Kennedys Sligo All Stars. All Stars came out on top. Thanks to Ryan Muldoon For Refereeing at short notice and to Jordan and Zak who coached the lads. Agains Molly Muldoon looked after the table officialing. Our 18 Girls also got thier campagn off to a great start defeating Warriors and Kilcar in sligo. Thanks to Warriors for hosting us. Great to see both our Girls and boys under 18s up and running and the first 18s league in a few years here in the Region. 

League Table Basketball Ireland Women's Division One

Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff	Points	PCT
Tralee Imperials	5	5	0	0	338	215	123	15	0
Portlaoise Panthers	5	3	0	2	272	273	-1	11	0
Oblate Dynamos	4	3	0	1	255	221	34	10	0
Brittons Insurance Donegal Town	6	2	0	4	292	364	-72	10	0
Team Tom McCarthys St Marys	5	2	0	3	282	283	-1	9	0
NUIG Mystics	4	2	0	2	275	263	12	8	0
UL Huskies (WD1)	5	0	0	5	223	318	-95	5	0