Tipperary Knights 60
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors 62
BIDL Women 24-25
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors Women’s team got their BIDL campaign off to the best possible start with a thrilling win over Tipperary Knights in Presentation School, Thurles on Sunday afternoon. It took two periods of overtime to finally decide the contest, with literally nothing between the teams throughout a thoroughly absorbing encounter.
It was Warriors who had the better of the early exchanges with a hat trick of scores from captain Holly O’Brien, added to by a basket from Priya O’Donovan to put the visitors 8-2 up. Sinead Philips, Amy O’Brien, Tori Spencer and Shelly Tobin combined to see the Knights wrestle the lead back and another Philips effort edged the home side 13-10 ahead at quarter time.
A major score from Priya O’Donovan and a tough finish from Claire O’Mahony saw Warriors 17-13 up early in the second but Tobin, Spencer and Philips again chipped to see the Knights take back a narrow advantage. Lucy O’Donnell then opened her account before Emily Flynn and O’Brien pushed the Warriors 25-21 up. Amy O’Brien and Anna O’Sullivan exchanged scores in the final seconds of the quarter to see the sides go to the half time break with the Warriors 27-23 to the good.
Emily Flynn was in range again from the Tralee side early in the third but Tori Spence lit up for the Knights shooting a quickfire 9 points to give the hosts a 32-31 lead midway through the quarter. Scores from Amy O’Brien and Spencer for Knights and Sorcha Casey and Aisling O’Mahony for Warriors saw the hosts bring their narrow one point lead of 38-37 into the final quarter.
Spencer was on the mark early in the fourth to put a major score between the teams but Warriors fired their way back in front with scores from Holly O’Brien, Emily Flynn, Aisling O’Mahony and Sorcha Casey and when O’Brien added again the visitors looked set for the win at 47-44 up with a minute left in regulation time. However Amy O’Brien and Shelly Tobin had other ideas and the Knights pair hit crucial late baskets to tie the game at 48-48 at the end of the final quarter.
Into overtime and the teams went score for score with O’Brien, O’Mahony and Casey for Warriors seeing their hard work at the basket negated by a hat trick from Shelly Tobin that kept the sides deadlocked at 54-54 as the clock ticked down to the end of the first period of overtime.
The second overtime saw the Warriors grab a vital score in a tight game with Aisling O’Mahony on the mark to edge her side ahead but a two point score from Amy O’Brien and two from two from the line from Philips had the sides level for the 10th time in the game with a minute on the clock. With the game still in the melting pot it required one final push from either side to win it and that came in the form of Aisling O’Mahony’s second score of the additional minutes before fittingly captain Holly O’Brien swished a couple of clutch free throws to close out what was a great win in a terrific game of basketball.
It was a fantastic advertisement for the BIDL Women’s League and a great way for the Warriors to get their campaign up and running ahead of a home tie this weekend against Brunell. The game will be played as part of a doubleheader after the Warriors Super League game against UCD Marian. Tip off for the BIDL Women on Sunday afternoon is 5.30pm.
Scorers
Tipperary Knights – Shelly Tobin 16, Tori Spencer 16, Sinead Philips 15
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors – Holly O’Brien 20, Aisling O’Mahony 10, Emily Flynn 9
Thanks to Liam Ryan for the images.