IT Carlow Basketball Head Coach Martin Conroy says the addition of foreign imports has greatly strengthened Marble City Hawks.
The two teams clash in a National League Division One top of the table clash in IT Carlow on Sunday, and speaking to KCLR, Martin says that a number of the Marble City girls have experience of playing with IT Carlow.
“They are serious, fantastic core of girls there. Aine Sheehy, Sheila(Aine’s sister), Claire Kelly, all these girls have been involved in the National League maybe for the last two or three seasons. Those three girls played with a season with us for Carlow for a year and then they went back and set up their own club in MC Hawks, and the addition of the American Kelly and I think Kelly is a Canadian girl, so you have got Katie Fox as well, they are two fantastic additions to the club and Julian is doing a great job there.”
The Hawks have moved up to third in the league table with a 58-43 win over Fr. Matthew’s in O’Loughlin Gaels this past weekend. in the National League Division 1. Kelly O’Hallahan put in a dominating performance, racking up 17 points and 11 rebounds with Katie Fox also firing on all cylinders.
In a post to Facebook, the coaches praised the efforts of the local ladies on the court.
“The contribution of the local girls (Phil, Claire, Aine, Liz, Sheila and Maira) was the story of the game for me. They stood up to the challenge and gave the team another option for scoring when a team focused on shutting down Kellly O’H. For us as a coaching team this is the proudest and significant part of the victory. This demonstrates the strength and versatility of the team when challenged. What can’t be ignored is the effort and tempo that Katie Fox brings to the team, while the stats don’t show this. Without her the team would have struggled to compete tonight. For this Katie gets the player of the game.”
IT Carlow welcome Marble City Hawks and will be looking to preserve their unbeaten run in the league, having gotten the better of the Hawks earlier in the season. To their advantage, ITC have two games in hand while still holding on to the top of the league at this stage of the season.
Tip off is at 1.30pm in the Barrow Centre this Sunday.
