Killester Div 1 Ladies win the PAT CLARKE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

Held on Friday 14th - Sunday 16th September

The weekend opened with a thrilling Dublin derby involving Killester and Drimnagh with Killester's inside power proving too much for Drimnagh. Killester edged the win with a 6 point victory. The standard for the weekend was set with this highly contested game.

There were wins on Saturday for Killester, Drimnagh, Sligo, Meteors, Portlaoise and Longford.

Meteors topped the table in pool "A" with Portlaoise Pacers finishing runners up. Pool "B" was won by Killester with Longford Falcon's finishing as runners up.

The first semi-final was between Killester and Portlaoise with Killester coming out on top after a close and hard fought game.

The second semi-final was contested by Longford Falcons and Meteors. After a close first half, Meteors pulled away to build a 20 point lead but Longford never gave up and pulled it back to a 10 point game. Meteors managed to steady themselves and finished the game winning by a 12 point margin.

The final saw the meeting of the top two teams from the pools with Meteors playing against Killester. Killester started the stronger and ran into an early lead. Meteors came storming back with some great inside play by Sarah Boyle and led by 10 points at half time. Killester chipped away at the Meteors lead and Meteors were having difficulty with finding scores.

Killester took the upper hand with 5 minutes to go as tiredness seemed to hit both teams. Killester led by 5 points with 2 minutes remaining, thanks to some impressive shooting from MVP Pamela O'Neill. Meteors reduced the deficit to 1 point and with 10 seconds to go Clare Healy caused a turnover by a Killester player. With one final play to go Meteors tried in vein to get the winning basket, however Killester took the trophy in the end by the tightest of margins.

It was great to see such a great turnout in the tournament's inaugural year and it is hoped to build on the success of our first year for it to become a major event in the basketball calendar.

The tournament was a great success and a great way to honour Pat Clarke who is greatly missed by the basketball world.

Thanks to all of those that worked so hard to make this weekend happen.