Basketball: UL refuse to panic as mistakes cost Killester

KILLESTER got as close as anyone to runaway ESB women’s Superleague leaders, University of Limerick, but they still came off second best on Saturday.

UL refused to panic after falling 12 points behind early in the weekend’s only fixture.

Reflected Killester coach, Maeve Coleman: “We could have won but we made too many mistakes.

“We were up 12 but we let them back into the game and they went on to lead by 17 at half time. Things did not go so well for us in the third quarter but then we stepped up our defence. We had opportunities but, unfortunately, we missed a few open shots that would have brought us right back into it.

“But UL are so good they never panic. They know each other so well and they maximised on our mistakes and punished us.

“For us it was a lesson learned and I would like to think things would be different next time we meet.

“The girls were very disappointed, but there was a 15 minute spell when we did not play particularly well but it was good to have a look at them and hopefully we will play well next time we meet.”

Again Michelle Aspell proved unstoppable for UL top scoring with 29 points but much of the foundation for the scoring was laid down by Sinead Leahy who rebounded strongly throughout the game while Gillian Aherne was also outstanding, particularly in the first half.

For Killester, Suzanne Maguire who took 20 defensive rebounds but it was a total team effort that kept them in the game. Gillian Morris did well when she moved to shadow Michelle Aspell while Shannon Reid top scored with 11 points.