Claregalway Juvenile Basketball Club hosted a girl’s U15 tournament. Five teams in all from around the county were able to attend. Each team played at least three games. A league system was used and points were allocated for win, lose or draw in each game. Claregalway girl’s won all their games with excellent teamwork, skill and determination. The other top two teams, Moycullen and Athenry hotly contested the second place and had to meet each other in the play off to see who would challenge Claregalway in the final.
Both teams, having met earlier in the competition, played a very tight game but Athenry won out this time by a couple of baskets. The final itself was also a very tight game. Athenry started well but it did not take the Claregalway girls long to get into the game. They settled and played very good defence. Athenry played a very strong skillful game and could not be underestimated at any stage. However, the determination shown in the earlier games continued and much to the excitement of the home support Claregalway won out by three points. The final score Claregalway 22, Athenry 19.
Claregalway team: Hannah Coen, Claire Meenehan, Ceire Broderick (Captain), Aoife Flynn, Aine McLoughlin, Rosanna Duggan, Nicola Newell, Sile Griffin, Sarah Crowe, Mairead Duffy, Kate Corrigan and injured on the day Niamh Greaney. Aine Casserley and Vanessa Molloy were also unavailable to play on the day. Coaches Mary Glynn and Nicky Broderick.
Athenry Team: Caroline Fahy, Claire McNamara, Marion Brannelly, Carla Hannon, Deirdre O’Grady, Michelle O’Brien, Rachel Walsh. Coach Dom Coll.
Other teams who participated were Gort, Moycullen and Barna.
As Club Chairman, Mike Murray extended thanks to all teams and coaches involved on the day. He then presented medals to the winners and runners-up.
With the U13 boys season coming to a close and the finals being held in early March its time to look back on a fairly successful season so far. It all started with two fine wins against Maree early in the year with the likes of Daniel Cummins, John Egan, Colm Brennan and Adam Duffy playing really well on the night in the first game and Claregalway ran out 39–24 winners. In the 2nd game Claregalway won 16–10 with Simon Monaghan, Enda Kearny and Andrew Brennan doing really well With 4 challenge games played and 4 wins things were looking good until the return match against Maree in Claregalway. Maree got revenge with a 37–34 win. With two wins against Corandulla recently and good performances from Gary Rohan, Sean Kearney, Shane Keenan, Patrick Coen, Michael Brennan the boys can look forward to the finals with confidence with the majority of the boys underage again next year and some excellent talent coming through from the U11s, the future is looking good for Claregalway U13 boys.
Claregalway U13 boys had an inter club mini-tournament recently in which six teams took part. There were two pools of three teams and the top two teams qualified for the semi finals. In pool A the winners were Emmet Kelly, Liam Foy, Peter Divilly and Michael Noonan with Daniel Cummins team 2nd. In pool B the winners were David Morris, Enda Keaney, Sean Kearney and Hubert Newell with John Egan’s team 2nd. The first semi-final was very exciting with John Egan’s team winning out 15–10, despite the best efforts of Liam Foy and Emmet Kelly, Michael Noonan and Peter Divilly.
In the 2nd semi-final Daniel Cummins, Kieran Hennessy, Padraic Noone and Michael Evans had a little too much scoring power for David Morris’s team and won in the end 12–6. The final came down to the wire in the end with Daniel Cummins team winning a very enjoyable game 16–13. Daniel Cummins was voted the tournaments best player with strong opposition from John Egan, Emmett Kelly and Colm Brennan. A word of thanks for the referees on the the night Liam Egan and Tony Crane. Trophies were presented afterwards to the winners and runners-up.
U11 Girls played games against Barna and Gort on the weekend of 26th January.
Two teams from Claregalway played Barna on Sunday. The first team that played won by 24–6. The second team narrowly lost by 2 points. On Sunday both teams travelled to Gort where the first team out won by 1 point. The second team also won their game by 18–0. Congratulations to all.
Team players consisted of Aoife Greally, Rachel Farrell, Claire Corcoran, Deirdre Brennan, Lauren Murray, Aine Brennan, Ciara Newell, Eleanor O’Reailly, Aoife Noone, Patricia Moran, Nicola Reidy, Eithne Brennan, Helen Egan, Aoife O’Reilly, Fiona Griffin, Emily O’Reilly, Melissa Noone, Valerie Noone and Helen Moran.
