Women’s Super League
Pyrobel Killester 109
Courtyard Liffey Celtics 86
PYROBEL Killester became the first team this season to overcome league leaders and Cup champions, Courtyard Liffey Celtics.
They did so with a stunning exhibition of three-point shooting at the IWA Clontarf, completing a perfect double-weekend as they also saw off IT Carlow 87-54 on Saturday.
Indeed, a dazzling performance that saw 17 three-pointers from Killester in total – with nine of these coming in the fourth quarter alone – was enough to see them come back from a 47-56 point deficit at half time to win out in thrilling fashion, 109-86.
Rebecca Nagle and Miah Spencer were the stand-out three-point stars in a dazzling team display for Killester, bagging seven and six three-pointers respectively on the night, with Christa Reed chipping in with four huge long range efforts as well in a game that really dished up everything from the off.
A high-scoring first quarter saw nothing much separating the sides, with Liffey edging proceedings at the end of the period, 22-26, thanks to superb work from Aine O’Connor and Allie LeClaire.
The intensity continued in the second, with Killester finding ways through the Liffey defense to drive inside and pick up some bonus points from the free throw line, but Sorcha Tiernan, LeClaire and Briana Green kept the pace up for the Cup champions to lead 47-56 at the half time break.
A huge second half followed and what a showcase of Irish basketball it was, as Killester just could not miss.
They outscored the league leaders 28-10 in the quarter thanks to the superb shooting of Spencer, Nagle and Reed to lead 75-66 going into the last.
The women in orange certainly dared to dream going down the stretch and, after losing to Liffey in Leixlip last weekend, were certainly not giving up on their home turf easily.
By the midway point of the fourth, the three-point shooting exhibition continued to see them into a 10-point lead.
The scores just kept raining in, with Spencer and Nagle dominating on offence and despite big efforts from LeClaire, Tiernan and Karen Mealey at the other end, nothing could stop the Killester onslaught and they won out 109-86 point winners in the end.
Nagle was ecstatic with the win: “Absolutely delighted; we have worked so hard all season but haven’t been getting the results we were hoping for but it came through tonight. The addition of Miah is a huge asset and we are just so happy.
“We were really close last week, up 17 going into the last quarter and knew we let that game get out of our hands so we were really fired up for this one. This is a huge boost for us.”
