Summers shines on debut for Irish girls

Basketball: A Mayo born player was among the stars for Ireland at last week’s U16 Four Nations at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.

Aged only 14 and one of the youngest players in the tournament, Kaitlyn Summers made her Irish debut against Scotland last Wednesday night and scored a dozen points, including a big three-pointer, and had no fewer than eight assists as the home nation ran out convincing winners.

The point guard is daughter of Lawrence ‘Puff’ Summers who used to play Super League basketball for Ballina, and granddaughter of former Ballina chairman Padraig Moore.

Now living in Kilkenny but firmly a Mayo girl at heart, Kaitlyn helped Ireland to another comfortable victory over Wales the same day which meant everything came down to a winner-takes-all clash with a powerful England side on Thursday to determine who’d win the Four Nations.

Kaitlyn ran the point very effectively and with England performing exceptionally strong in the second quarter, it was Summers’ prowess from free-throws that helped keep the hosts in contention at 42-27 behind at half-time.

To their credit Ireland played their best basketball in the final quarter, scoring 21 points while restricting their opponents to 15, but still came up just short 73-61 to finish second in the competition overall.