Longford Phoenix girls crowned national basketball queens following marathon final battle

The Longford Phoenix Under 14 Girls competed in the All-Ireland Club Championships at the weekend and they came home with the All-Ireland ‘C’ title which is a magnificent achievement for this talented group of players.

They were in a very tough group four-team group against some national heavyweights that included the Limerick Celtics, the Limerick Huskies and Kilkenny.

They lost all their group games, so that put them into the All-Ireland C grade. They beat North Star of Derry in their quarter-final by 29 points to 14 and then followed that up with victory over Clare Cobras by 22 points to 16 in the semi-final.

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In the final, they faced Maree of Galway and it was an enthralling and nail-biting contest that took three periods of extra-time to separate the sides.

It finished 26 all at full-time. They were still level at the end of the first period of extra-time with the teams deadlocked on 28 points each. The second period of extra-time could not separate them as they were still tied at 30 points each. An amazing and exhausting final eventually ended in victory by 35 points to 31 for the Longford girls.

It has been an amazing season for the team as they were also crowned LLR League Champions and Midlands Top Four winners before last week and just a few days before the All-Ireland Club Championships, they edged out Mohill by a single point to also win the LLR Top Four Final.

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Congratulations to coaches Laura and Niamh and their players for finishing off the season on such a high.