Results

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Quarter-Finals
13.12.1998	Tolka Rovers	108	Castlebar Rockets	58
13.12.1998	Killester	68	Supermacs Limerick	63
13.12.1998	Sligo Dairies	33	Snowcream Wildcats	81
	Semi-Finals
30.01.1999	Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats	75	Killester	55
30.01.1999	Star of the Sea	68	Marian	67
	Final
31.01.1999	Tolka Rovers	59	Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats	58

Final

At National Basketball Arena, Tallaght 31 January 1999	HT	FT	Scorers
Tolka Rovers	(27)	59	Rachel Kelly 15, Eimear Howard 14, Sharon Kelly 9
Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats	(36)	58	Jillian Hayes 14 M Fitzpatrick 12, Michelle Maguire 12

Report

Tolka Rovers won their first ever Irish Basketball Association Women’s Senior National Sprite Cup when defeating the heavily fancied Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats in their rookie Final. The Wildcats with only loss all season battled all the way against Tolka but a game high 15 points from MVP Rachel Kelly and 14 from Eimear Howard were just enough for the Northside Dubliners to beat the Waterford women. In an unpredictable finish, given both season form and the Wildcats being 13 points in front after a few minutes of the second half starting, Tolka managed to not only pull back the score but go ahead with a second Lorraine O’Brien three-pointer, and then pulled into a seven-point lead with three minutes remaining thanks to the excellent play of Sharon Kelly inside and another ‘three’ from Roisin Dixon. Wildcats managed to claw the score back to 58-59 with 23 seconds left after the brilliant Michelle Maguire but she missed the bonus and the game and the Cup went to Tolka Rovers for the first time ever.

About Basketball Ireland / Irish Basketball Association Cups

The Irish Basketball Association ran the National Cup for the Top Two Divisions as well as any regional teams that wished to enter in both Men’s and Women’s as well as Junior (Under 19) Cup for both Men and Women as well as a Junior B (U19) Regional Cup for both Men and Women. The Cups were Knockout (single elimination) from the First Round. They were replaced by Super League and Division 1 Cups when the Association rebranded as Basketball Ireland in 2003. The Junior (U19) Cups were replaced by Under 20 and Under 18 Cups. Other Cups included the Irish Wheelchair Basketball Cup and introduced in the late 2010s the National Intermediate Cup Competition (Tier 3).

References

Newspapers

[1] Anon. (1999) “A-Z of Weekend Sport: Basketball” Irish Independent. Monday, December 14, 1998. Pg. 32.

[2] Anon. (1999) “A-Z of Weekend Sport: Basketball” Irish Independent. Monday, February 1, 1999, Pg. 30

[3] Cliona Foley. (1999) “Notre Dame and Tolka Cup Joy” Irish Independent. Monday, February 1, 1999, Pg. 30

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ann Hanley (Killester and Ireland)

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 26 April 2021

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2021

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