DCU Mercy were denied a fourth Paudie O’Connor Cup by a stirring UCC Glanmire comeback at the National Basketball Arena on Sunday.
Mercy led by 14 points as late as the final quarter but Irish international Claire Melia led from the front with ten points as the Cork side roused to run out comfortable 72-65 winners.
Melia was awarded the MVP for an outstanding individual performance that yielded 21 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, four steals and two turnovers.
Glanmire made all the early running as two Áine McKenna threes in quick succession and a Casey Grace jumpshot saw them race into an 8-0 lead.
DCU got on the board with a Bailey Greenberg layup, but Melia responded with one of her own in the process of being fouled and added an extra from the free-throw line.
Melia then added an assist for Carrie Shepherd as the Cork side raced into a 13-2 lead inside the opening ten minutes.
Two more layups from the imposing Melia saw UCC lead 21-9 with four minutes to go in the opening quarter, but Rachel Huijsdens, Megan Connolly and Alarie Mayze scored quickly.
Amy Dooley netted twice, either side of another Huijsdens jump shot, brough the score to 25-17 in Glanmire’s favour at the whistle of the first.
A three-pointer from Nicole Clancy led a DCU Mercy fightback early in the second quarter as they reduced the arrears to a point early on.
DCU Mercy led 34-31 at the break thanks to a buzzer-beating layup from Mayze that saw them take the lead for the first time.
After Hannah Thornton and Melia exchanged baskets, DCU stretched their lead to seven points courtesy of a Greenberg layup.
Layups from Mayze and Greenberg saw Mercy race into an eight-point lead with 3’09 to go into the third quarter before UCC called a timeout.
A three-pointer for Greenberg, after Melia had cut the deficit with a layup, made it 52-43 to DCU Mercy at the end of the third quarter.
Mayze landed a three-pointer within ten seconds of the resumption, and she posted another after McKenna had secured a basket from a free throw.
The rest of the final quarter was to be UCC Glanmire’s, however, with Shepherd’s three following by a pair of Pfirman jump shots.
Despite Mercy leading 60-55 at the halfway point, UCC Glanmire cut loose in the final few minutes with Melia’s superb three-pointer drawing them level with four minutes to go.
McKenna added another three-pointer within 14 seconds, before Melia added two from the free-throw line.
Thornton’s layup brought DCU’s deficit back to three but seven free-throw points from UCC Glanmire wrapped it up for the Cork side.
UCC Glanmire coach Mark Scanlon said: “I hate when we get 10 and 12 point leads, because I find when we do that we kind of switch off.
“We think that it’s going to be easy, which we all do. You see it in a soccer match, the team goes 2-0 up they like to think it’s all over, but then there’s a goal and back in the game.
“So today we kind of played a bit like that, but what character, because the tide was going out.
“We were 14 points down, we got it back at one stage and I thought we were on a run, we turned it over, they scored a three point play and I was going ‘here we go again.’
“I must say I said a few prayers to my mother and father today in the middle of that game.”
