Wonderful Wildcats well-deserved winners
Wildcats' Sarah Hickey on the attack against Liffey Celtic's Katie Williamson. All Photos: Noel Browne
Sponsored by STS, the SETU Wildcats ground out a well-deserved 82-67 victory over Liffey Celtics at home in the Mercy Sports Hall.
The Kildare side who are always among the top teams in the league raced into an 8-nil lead inside the first two minutes of the game leaving the large home support fearing the worst. Gradually Wildcats edged their way into the game with back to back baskets from Helena Rohan. Liffey's American Brooke Kane was on fire scorching the Wildcats net with many amazing scores from distance pushing their advantage out to 10 points.
Kate Hickey responded with a long range three pointer which she followed up with a coast-to-coast basket. Moments later her sister Sarah netted three consecutive baskets resulting from tremendous posts moves and by the end of the opening quarter the picture looked much brighter for the home side with the game all square on 22 points each.
As the game progressed the always hard-working Alyssa Duraso Frescas found her range with a couple of three pointers which were soon cancelled out with similar scores from Liffey's point guard Kelly Bracken. It was basket for basket all the way to the break in a seriously high quality game of basketball which saw Wildcats hold a slender 3 point lead 43-40.
From the restart the tempo of the game remained high and entertaining with dogged defence provided by both sides. Coach jillian Hayes made one significant move which proved a game changer when she switched SETU international student Sanija Brikmane on to American Brooke Kane who hit 22 points in the first half of the game.
From that point the 19 year old from Riga in Latvia thrilled the home support with an outstanding defensive display which kept Kane scoreless for the remainder of the game. She also contributed 19 points to Wildcats total which proved significant by the games end.
That third quarter saw Wildcats keep their opponents scoreless for a full 5 minutes while making the most of their own limited opportunities leading 64-54 with the final quarter to play.
The visitors soon reduced the home advantage to 6 points before Alyssa put distance between the sides with two three pointers and two from 2 on the free throw line. Mel Stone added further to Wildcats advantage as did Helena Rohan and Sarah Hickey.
At the games end the 82-67 victory looked comfortable but such was not the case as the game hung in the balance for most of the game.
The win is all the more significant as unlike others Wildcats are playing with one American player. This hopefully will change in the coming days as a former college teammate of Alyssa Durazo Frescas is due in Waterford subject to international paperwork being delivered in time.
Her arrival is crucial to Wildcats progress as this coming Saturday they travel to the Capital to play unbeaten Dublin Meteors.
