Huijsdens helps DCU Mercy to u-20 title

Meath's recently-crowned Young Sportsperson of the Year  Rachel Huijsdens helped DCU Mercy to victory in the  U-20 Basketball National Cup final against Cork team Brunel last night.

The Dunshaughlin teenager is part of DCU Mercy's bid for three National Cup trophies in a single weekend.

The bid got off to a dream start with this 73-54 victory on Friday night for back-to-back Under 20 titles.

With five of this squad suiting up for Sunday’s Women’s National Cup final, DCU Mercy were eager to put the U-20 decider to bed as early as possible.

With Bronagh Power-Cassidy, Rachel Huijsdens and Maeve O Seaghdha all practically able to consider the National Basketball Arena as their home court after last summer’s silver medal-winning performance by Ireland u-18 women, they certainly settled quickly opening up a 14-1 lead early on.

It was a lead they would not relinquish, with superb displays from Nicole Clancy and Aoife Maguire underpinning their dominance and despite a fantastic performance from Brunell’s Amy Murphy and Alex Macheta, DCU were clinical in their finishing and precision perfect in their passing and ran out 73-54 point winners in the end.