Senior Womens Semi-Final:
Scruffys St. Pauls 59 Oblate Dynamos 67
7th Jan 2009
Height advantage saw Dynamos win the offensive rebounds in the first and
had excellent outside shooting from Shelly Behan to compound the advantage as
they led 21-12 after the first quarter, with Lynn Jones and Caitriona O'Connell
leading Scruffys resistance.
Three pointers from Jones kept Scruffys alive in the second, but only barely,
with Dynamos strangling their hopes under their own boards, Lynn McLoughlin and
Eleanor Curran doing the damage as Dynamos went in at half-time full value for a
37-28 lead.
Things didn't get a lot better for them in the third, despite starting it with a
great three from Caitriona O'Connell, as Georgina McKenna controlled the open
court and Dynamos went to work with a will, while Scruffys just couldn't kick
their offence into life, trailing by 55-41 into the fourth. Mairead Finnegan
burst into life on their way to a comeback, but it was more like a cliff to
scale than a mountain to climb and it got a lot steeper as they came was held up
by a nasty facial injury to St. Pauls co-captain Eimear Buckley, who had to be
helped off the court to a standing ovation from both sets of supporters.
Her co-captain Lynn Jones battled manfully, and herself, Caitriona O'Connell,
and Finnegan hauled it back to 8 points at the finish, but they had no answer to
the skill and power of MVP McKenna, three-point shooter Shelly Behan, or
especially the shooting power of Michelle Hynes and Lynn McLoughlin.
Scruffys St. Pauls: Caitriona O'Connell (17), Mairead Finnegan (16), Linda
Raymond (2), Lynn Jones (11), Carolyn O'Mahony (2), Carolyn O'Mahony, Eimear
Buckley, Cassandra Buckley(2), Emma Sherwood, Ashley Campbell
Oblate Dynamos: Michelle Hynes (13), Sinead Boland (3), Georgina McKenna (11),
Sinead Boland, Lorraine Carroll, Janet Byrne, Tanya McGrath (5), Shelley Behan
(9), Tammy McKenna (4), Eleanor Curran (2), Tammy Black (6), Lynn McLoughlin
(14)