The Address UCC Glanmire 91 Waterford Wildcats 67 

A magnificent third quarter from the champions The Address UCC Glanmire saw them advance to the final of the Champions Trophy final following a comfortable win over Waterford Wildcats at the Mardyke Arena on Sunday.

In a game where the Deise outfit pushed Glanmire hard up to the interval the class of the Super League champions resurfaced when defeat stared them in the face.

Speaking after the game Glanmire coach Mark Scannell praised his side in the manner they played after suffering a defeat to the same side a fortnight ago in their final league at this venue.

"We prepared hard and cut out the simple errors we made when we last played them and in the end I am proud that we have another opportunity to add another trophy to our collection this season. We trained hard and next week we have another five days to get it right for the final." 

After a few sluggish possessions a neat Amy Dooley jumper got the home side up and running but Wildcats responded with consecutive baskets.

For some strange reason, Glanmire looked tentative with Wildcats surging into a five-point lead before two baskets from Claire O’Sullivan brought parity midway through the quarter.

Suddenly Glanmire got a run and with American Byrd showing class in the offence court they moved into a six-point lead, 18-12, with three minutes remaining before Wildcats coach Tommy O’Mahony was forced to call a time-out.

In the closing minutes of the quarter once again Glanmire went into meltdown at both ends and with the Hickey sisters Kate and Sarah posing them all sorts of problems Wildcats deservedly led 24-22 entering the second quarter.

Defence continued to be a problem for Glanmire but midway through the quarter, they were fortunate to command a four-point lead.

At this stage, Glanmire were only playing in snatches but with Wildcats also misfiring it was no surprise the home side increased their lead to eight points with three minutes remaining to the interval.

Some scrappy play allowed Wildcats reduce the deficit to five points at the break in a game that was still very much on a knife edge.

Aine McKenna who had a quiet first half got Glanmire up and running and they followed up to increase their lead to 17 points in the 24th minute with Wildcats still in search of their opening basket.

The game ran away from Wildcats in this period and entering the third quarter Glanmire had surged into a 74-50 lead heading into the final quarter.

It was a case of going through the motions coming down the stretch as this game was done and dusted long before the sound of the final buzzer.

Top scorers for The Address UCC Glanmire: B Byrd 28, K Rasheed 19, C O’Sullivan 13, A Dooley 9, A McKenna 9.

Waterford Wildcats: J Walker 22, S Hickey 14, K Seay 12.

Referees: J Dooley (Portlaoise). M O’Callaghan (Killarney).