Under 16 Girls Basketball Team Through to Leinster Finals (4)

After only two full seasons at C level our under 16 girls basketball team have finally made the breakthrough to the regional final. The girls are now guaranteed a place in the All Ireland Playoffs for the first time in the school’s history. After 4 quarters of insatiable drama the Larkin girls took victory on a scoreline of 69-57. The game started at lightning pace with Larkin finding themselves trailing 15-9 due to some fantastic scoring from kishoge’s outstanding Rachel O Carroll. The larkin girls began to edge in to the game helped by a three point shot from Alicia Jadia. The joy was short lived though as Jadia picked up her fourth foul and now had to play three more quarters with no fouls to give. Larkin switched to a zone defence to stoutly defend against the nearly unstoppable O Carroll.  Fantastic rebounds from Joanne Bambe, Sunna Begum and Tatiana Orlov kept Larkin’s heads above water who then managed to reach the half time buzzer leading 27-26.  The movement of Jadia to post was the catalyst for a dominant third quarter opening as she profited from some super passes from Amran Maxamad to hit 10 points on the bounce. Larkin edged in to an eleven point lead but that girl O Carroll once again stepped up and a three from distance had the Kishoge girls back in front by one with 2.30 left in the third.  That setback seemed to inspire the Larkin girls as Maxamad replied in earnest with a superb three pointer almost immediately to give Larkin a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.. The outstanding Rose Mesquita began to find space on the wing and finished off some great moves to push larkin 6 clear entering the 4th. Mesquita again found space at the beginning of the fourth with a three point play that seemed to finally quell the enthusiastic and talented kishoge girls. Orlov and Bambe added baskets on the break to push Larkin in to a 12 point lead with 4 mins on the clock. Try as they might Kishoge couldn’t close the gap even after Jadia finally picked up her fifth foul. Suvd Ulambayor and Diane Hrvisceau performed excellently when introduced and the Larkin girls held on to their 12 point lead to reach a first ever C regional final. We are super proud girls. Scorers: Rose Mesquita 29, Amran Elisha 17, Alicia Jadia 17, Tatiana Orlov 4, Joanne Bambe 2.