Glanmire complete stunning hat-trick

Montenotte Hotel, Cork 89 UL Aughinish 75

It was the final leg of a magnificent treble following spectacular victories over Maree from Galway in the U18 cup on Friday night and Killester in the U20 cup on Saturday.

But this was undoubtedly the most spectacular of the three as UL Aughinish are streaking away at the top of the SuperLeague table and Glanmire languish second from the bottom.

However, on this occasion Glanmire, appearing in their first cup final, led the Limerick girls — appearing in their sixth and going for their fourth title in five years — a merry dance.

They were leading 3-2 when their recently-signed American Maverley Nettles landed a three-pointer and they never looked back with former Irish captain Michelle Fahy and Nettles laying the foundations for a stunning runaway lead.

Going into the last 30 seconds of the first quarter they led by 10 points when UL’s American, Courtney McDaniel, had her first basket to reduce the arrears.

That first quarter set the tone for the whole game, although UL would come back to take the lead momentarily in the third.

Fahy got the second quarter under way with a well-worked basket and when Lisa Palmer replied, Amanda O’Regan made two big three-pointers to put Glanmire 14 points ahead and coasting.

UL, on the other hand, struggled and their problems were highlighted when Donna Buckley went coast-to-coast for a basket and followed with a three-pointer to increase Glanmire’s advantage to 19 points.

UL were at sixes and sevens all over the floor.

Offensively and defensively Glanmire were on top. Another three-pointer from Buckley — she shot four of five from outside the arc — and 20 points separated the sides and they went on to lead 44-33 at half time.

But their character was called into question in the third quarter. Dearbhla Breen landed a three-pointer to cut the arrears, Jillian Ahern added a basket and there were just six points between the sides.

Now Dearbhla Breen was calling the shots, Ahern had stepped up a gear and she put UL into a 51-50 lead midway through the quarter.

Marie Breen tied the game from the free throw line but UL led 57-34 going into the final quarter.

“There is a lot of determination and guts in this team — more than in any team I have ever seen before,” Glanmire coach Mark Scannell insisted.

“We have had a horrible season with injuries but they always battled their way through it.

“Now they had the biggest battle of all on their hands. We were playing a national power and now they were in front. We never dropped the heads and to come back like that was magnificent.

“The game plan was defence. They are great defenders — those girls won All-Ireland medals for Cork in football and camogie. They know how to win.

“I knew UL were going to get a run and now they had got their run and I was happy it was in the third quarter because if it was in the fourth we might not have had time to come back. Now I knew we would come back.”

Fahy led the comeback and when Marie Breen landed a big three-pointer they were back in front.

Amanda O’Regan added one from the line and Buckley and Marie Breen shot the baskets that had them five points up with six minutes remaining.

Nollaig Cleary made her mark in the closing minutes. Two baskets increased the Glanmire lead to nine points with two minutes remaining and they were 10 points up approaching the final minute, with UL running out of ideas.

Team captain Marie Breen turned in the performance of her career to end up with 29 points. It earned her the MVP award but she wanted to share everything with her team-mates.

“We got off to a great start,” she said. “We always knew that an early run would be vital if we were to beat UL.

“We went 20 points up but we always knew that UL were not going to lie down and die. They would come at us and that’s exactly what they did in the third quarter.

“We did not panic. We stuck with it and we stuck to our game plan.

“We knew that we would get back into the game and we did. In the last quarter we found our legs again and we got another run.

“We were very fired up for this game. We were hungry. We wanted it so bad. We knew we had to get off to a good start and every single one of us was ready.

“Everything went my way, everything went in for me. I was a bit here and there in the third quarter but then I found my form again. But this was a team effort.

“Myself and Donna (Buckley) are both from Mallow and we have been playing together for a long time — we are known as the tall one and the small one — but she is some player. Without her we would not have won today.

“We have had a lot of injuries all season. At the start of the season we had seven players on the bench injured, but now we have everyone together.”

Top scorers for Glanmire: M Breen 29, D Buckley 19, M Fahy 14, A O’Regan 10.

UL Aughinish: D Breen 17, F Scalloy 15, C McDaniel 15.