Matt Keane reports
Stephanie O 'Shea scored an impressive 14 points for the WIT Wildcats as they defeated IT Carlow 78-55 in the Mercy Hall on Sunday. She was pleased with the win but admitted that they will have to improve on their overall performance.
"It's great to get another win under our belts because Carlow are a tough team to beat. Having said that, we did make hard work of it. They really put it up to us in the first quarter and their defence was really good. We definitely struggled during that quarter but we remained disciplined which was important. This game was due to be played on the Bank Holiday Monday so our preparations were disrupted somewhat but it did give us an extra week to train which was good. We have a lovely blend of youth and experience and I thought Kate Hickey was brilliant today. She shot the lights out. It's lovely to see the young players coming on during the course of the match. Lots of people have remarked that you would have thought they were on the team for a few years and not just starting out on their careers in the game. We have a really tough game next Saturday when we play Castleisland here in the Mercy. They have got some positive results this season and they will really put it up to us. We will have the advantage of the home court but we will have to do a lot of work in training all week and try and fix our defence if we wish to beat them''
Elsewhere, Kate Hickey netted 21, while Jasmine Walker noticed 17 for the side.
The Wildcats are now among five teams with three wins and a loss from their opening four games, but head coach Tommy O’Mahony feels his team have plenty to work on.
“Delighted to get the win, but the performance was not good enough. Carlow are always going to be tough and they out-fought us too many times today, in the 4th quarter we gained a bit of momentum and were able to see the game out, but defensively we need to be better if we are going to challenge teams in the future.”