Carlow girls hold their own on All-Ireland Club Championship stage

Carlow Basketball Club’s Under 14 Girls team coach, Edel Hayden insists the experience of competing in last weekend’s AIG All-Ireland Club Championship in Gormanston Park will serve her players well.

Overseeing the side, along with fellow coach, Padraic Kenny, Hayden was impressed at the manner in which her team met the challenge of opposition from far more established clubs over the course of the pool stages on Saturday and in their Division A quarter-final the following day.

Seeded in the highest group of the competition, Carlow made a bright start on Saturday morning, with a huge fourth-quarter surge seeing them outgun St. Mary’s Castleisland by 11 in that closing period to secure a 37-26 victory.

Cara Shields led the way for the team with 11 points in that opener, six of which came in the final quarter of a game that also saw Mia Keating and Ava Broderick combine for a further 12.

That went a long way to helping them see off their Kerry rivals, with whom they found themselves deadlocked at 25 points apiece at the close of the third quarter.

Carlow found the going much tougher against Limerick Celtics in their second outing, losing that one 42-31 despite another strong finish.

Having trailed their opponents by 21 points heading into the fourth, Carlow refused to throw in the towel, recouping 10 over the closing six minutes as Grace Kenny got in a for a couple of buckets that took her tally to eight with Broderick finishing on just one more.

But it was still not enough to threaten Limerick’s hold on this tie, as they secured their opening win of the campaign thanks in no small measure to the combined 23 points from Aimee Bresnan and Gyte Andrijauskaite.

Next up for Carlow was a Dublin Lions team who would continue on to emerge the overall Division A champions.

Indeed, looking to make it a clean sweep in the group, the Clondalkin side saw off Carlow 54-32, Hannah and Mia Dunne inflicting the bulk of the damage with a combined 24 points.

Carlow, nevertheless, progressed through to the Division A quarter-finals where they came up against a strong Boyne Warriors outfit that secured further progress by way of a 45-27 victory, Cara Shields still managing to put up 14 points, just one shy of the game-high 15 that Maebh Byrne carded for Boyne.

It was a very solid display by this group of Carlow players, who, having won the Kilkenny/SouthEast Under 13 league last year, targeted a successful title defence and qualification to the AICC this season.

It was a goal they achieved in very convincing fashion, winning 11 of their 12 games to make it back-to-back titles, while also securing the opportunity to test themselves on the national stage.

“The whole weekend was a super learning experience for the girls” remarked Carlow coach, Edel Hayden.

“Getting the opportunity to play the best teams from across Ireland on the national stage, it's only going to benefit them, both in their development individually as players, and as a whole group.

“The All-Ireland Club Championship is a different level of competition than what we're normally used to and it’s important to take the positive from it.

“After winning the Under 13 league last year, the goal for us this season was to qualify for the All Ireland Club Championship. And so after successfully defending our league title, we felt like we were in a positive place as a team.

“When we qualified for the AICCs, we were placed in the highest seeded pool in the competition and we knew we were going to face some of the tougher, more experienced teams from bigger clubs.

“The likes of Dublin Lions and Limerick Celtics, they're well established clubs, and, although Carlow basketball is hugely successful, we're still a club pretty much in its infancy.

“The girls have shown incredible commitment, especially over the last two seasons. They’ve come on so much and myself and Padraic do feel very lucky to have been part of their journey” she said.

CARLOW BC: Anna Rowan, Mia Keating, Anna O’Sullivan, Lily Archbold, Eve Kehoe, Maeve Browne, Ava Broderick, Grace Kenny, Amelia Edwards, Rosie Tominiyi, Cara Shields, Amelia Heslin, Evie Joyce, Anna Rowan.