The Dublin Lions U14s celebrate with the cup
Cup delight for Dublin Lions teams
THE first weekend in March was Dublin Ladies Basketball (DLBB) Cup Final weekend at Oblate Hall Inchicore and it saw all three Dublin Lions Juvenile girl’s teams contesting their respective finals which was a great achievement for the Clondalkin club.
Buoyed on by a great turnout of supporters on both days first up on Saturday morning were the U12s captained by Hannah Dunne & Aoibhin Courtney. They were up against their local rivals Firhouse Notre Dame.
Lions got off to a quick start and were 18-6 up by the end of the first quarter, a lead that extended out to 30-12 by halftime.
Firhouse came out fighting in the third quarter however Lions held their nerve to close out the game to become Dublin Cup Champions with a final score of 53-22.
It was the second time in three years that Dublin Lions took home the U12 girl’s title.
Meanwhile the U14 girls were up against their perennial rivals Killester. Lions were led by captain Avie Leigh McGonagle, the teams had met in the final two years previously with Lions coming out victorious.
Two weeks prior to the cup final they met in the League with Killester coming out on top after double overtime 49-48.
Dublin Lions U13s celebrate with the cup
This time around Killester proved too strong for the Lions and having taken an 11-5 first quarter lead kept the pressure up against a battling Lions team to run our 46-19 winners taking their second successive cup final victory having won the U13 title the previous year.
Sunday morning saw the U13 Lions girls captained by Mia Dunne and Lauren McDonagh come up against their great rivals Malahide.
The two teams had met in the U12 final the previous year with Malahide winning in a closely fought game.
This year was just as close.
The first quarter ended with Malahide ahead 9-7.
The Lions had a strong second quarter to lead 18-11 at half time.
Nothing could separate the teams in the third quarter as the game flowed from end to end.
Going into the last quarter the Lions led 26-19.
The game ebbed and flowed right up to the last few seconds with the final buzzer seeing Lions lift the cup on a score of 39-35.
