Wildcats come up short against UL
5th Feb 2009
Bausch and Lomb Wildcats lined out without the services of Michelle Aspell, who is on the injured list, and also without young point guard Sinead Deegan for Saturday’s league encounter at Ozanam St. The home side started well however, leading by 15 points to 11 at the end of the first quarter and increasing this to a 9 point lead, 35 – 26 at the half- way stage. With a weakened line-up, Wildcats were always going to find the second period difficult. Coach Hehir didn’t have the strength on the bench to rotate his players sufficiently and tiredness began to have its effect. April Cahalane was having an excellent game for UL while American Kristin O’Neill was also in top form.
Kristin Zompetti, at point guard for Wildcats, was coping well without the back up of Deegan and Aspell but the introduction of former Wildcat, Cathy Grant, changed the picture. Grant exerted a lot of pressure on the point position as well as providing some quality passes inside to Fiona Scally who finished off some good scores. Jillian Hayes was having another good game inside with good support from Cathy Kavanagh. Kavanagh however fouled out with seven minutes to play and UL made the most of her absence. The final score was 60 – 72. Essentially however, O’Neill, with a game high of 27 points for the Limerick outfit, was the difference between the teams.