Sport

Gators grab NCAA title

Sports Digest : Swarming Gators defence and superior bench play delivered Florida's first US NCAA national basketball title …

Wed Apr 05 2006 - 01:00

Sports Digest: Swarming Gators defence and superior bench play delivered Florida's first US NCAA national basketball title on Monday with a 73-57 win over UCLA.

Sophomore forward Joakim Noah, the son of former tennis star Yannick, led Florida's potent inside game with 16 points on seven-for-nine shooting and had six blocks.

Florida dominated the opening half and built a 36-25 lead by half-time, with UCLA shooting just 29 per cent.

The Gators opened the second half with a 9-2 run, padding their lead to 45-27.

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UCLA closed to 65-53 on a jam by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute with 2:35 left, but Lee Humphrey responded with a three-pointer to quash any Bruins fightback.

St Mary's come good: St Mary's College, Charleville, landed the All-Ireland Senior A Colleges camogie title after a 1-9 to 0-4 replay victory over Presentation College, Athenry, in Meelick, Co Clare, yesterday.

The sides drew 2-5 to 2-5 in the first game, but this time St Mary's were determined to ease the disappointment of losing the last two finals. Aisling Thompson was one of the stars for the Co Cork side, notching a goal and three points.

Lisa Fitzgerald was also in form with a three-point contribution. Noreen Coen and Jessica Gill shared Presentation's four points, but it was never enough.

Scorers: St Mary's (A Thompson 1-3, L Fitzgerald 0-3, A Watson 0-2, Annette McAuliffe (0-1). Presentation College (J Gill 0-2, N Coen (0-2).

Big test for Roche: Young Irish professional Nicolas Roche will line out in perhaps his biggest race to date when he takes part in the prestigious Paris-Roubaix classic this coming Sunday, writes Shane Stokes.

The Cofidis rider will make his debut in the gruelling 259-kilometre classic, which takes the riders over bone-jarring cobblestones.

Sean Kelly won the race, known as "The Hell of the North", in 1984 and 1986. Roche's father, Stephen, triumphed in the amateur version of the race in 1980.

Before then, Roche is set to ride another prestigious ProTour event. He will compete in the Gent-Wevelgem classic in Belgium today.

McGinn in fine form: Niall McGinn led the way as Tyrone came from behind to beat Galway 0-11 to 0-10 at Charlestown and claim a place in the All-Ireland Vocational Schools' senior football final against Wicklow. The Ulster champions trailed by 0-5 to 0-4 at half-time, and when Galway extended their lead with two points early in the second half they looked to be in trouble.

But three superb points from McGinn hauled them back into contention. And Tyrone closed the deal in the dying moments when Kevin Mossey and Stephen Quinn pointed.

Scorers: Tyrone - N McGinn (0-5), S Kelly (0-1), D McDermott (0-1), P McAleer (0-1), P McDermott (0-1), K Mossey (0-1), S Quinn (0-1). Galway: P O Fatharta (0-4), C O Maolchiarain (0-2), G O Leigheann (0-2), P O Conaire (0-1), A MacDonncha (0-1).