“We stole one, basically,” admitted UCC Demons Head Coach, Colin O’Reilly, as his side managed to hold on to a narrow two-point win over Garvey’s Tralee Warriors in Cork on Friday evening in the opening game of the 2017/18 Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League season.
“We played with six and a half players – two lads went down with injuries from midway through the second quarter," he continued, acknowledging that they were also without their American for the game.
"It was a great win for us today, but it will probably cost us [due to injury] for the next couple of weeks. It’s good to get a big win in front of a full house, and it’s fantastic to get one that we didn’t expect. We were over-matched in every position.”
Elsewhere, reigning League champions Black Amber Templeogue overcame DCU Saints in style at the University complex on Saturday evening, with Lorcan Murphy back to his old ways, dunking his team home to glory. A big talking point for home fans was the return of veteran Emmet Donnelly into the Saints’ side.
Meanwhile, Maree will have to regroup ahead of next weekend’s game against Belfast Star, as Moycullen welcomed them up to Super League basketball with a bang on Saturday evening, as the latter ran out convincing 88-63 point winners in the big Galway derby at Oranmore.
“It was a tough game," admitted Head Coach John Finn. "Moycullen are a good team. It was a good lesson for us in that this is going to be a quicker game than Division One so we need to get used to that. They shot the ball better than us, and we just have to get up to the speed of the game.”
Hula Hoops National Cup champions Griffith Swords Thunder meanwhile also took the spoils from their Saturday evening clash with Pyrobel Killester, while Belfast Star travelled back home Friday evening with a big win over KUBS under their belts, as they ran out 40-point winners in the end.
The big talking points from the Men’s Division One meanwhile were newcomers to the League, LIT Celtics and St Paul’s Killarney. The former saw one of their roster, Matt St Amour bag a whopping 57 points against Ej Sligo All-Stars on Saturday which, surprisingly, was not enough to secure the Limerick team a win, while St Paul’s welcomed basketball back to Killarney with a bang as they played out a thrilling one-point win against Dublin Lions in front of a capacity crowd at the sports complex. BFG Neptune meanwhile secured two big wins from their double header weekend against IT Carlow Basketball and LYIT Donegal.
Fixtures continue apace next weekend.
Basketball Ireland Results September 15-17th, 2017
Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League
UCC Demons 79-77 Garvey’s Tralee Warriors
KUBS BC 49-89 Belfast Star
Pyrobel Killester 72-90 Griffith Swords Thunder
Maree 63-88 Moycullen
DCU Saints 79-96 Black Amber Templeogue
Basketball Ireland Men’s Division 1
IT Carlow Basketball 61-99 BFG Neptune
Ballincollig 109-75 LYIT Donegal
St Paul's Killarney 76-75 Dublin Lions
Portlaoise Panthers 67-80 Fr Mathews
EJ Sligo All-Stars 96-91 LIT Celtics, Mercy College
BFG Neptune 113-80 LYIT Donegal
Basketball Ireland Men's Super League
Maree 63-88 Moycullen
Top scorers Maree: Eoin Rockall 19, Padraig Burke 14, Cathal Finn 11
Top scorers Moycullen: James Loughnane 18, Brandon McGuire 16, Patrick Lyons 12
Half time score: Maree 30-43 Moycullen
Basketball Ireland – League tables (Week 1)
Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League: http://www.basketballireland.ie/menssuper/
Basketball Ireland Men’s Division One: http://www.basketballireland.ie/mensdivision1/
Basketball Ireland Fixtures: September 23-24th
Saturday, 23rd September 2017
Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League:
Belfast Star v Maree, Methodist College, 19:00
UCD Marian v UCC Demons, UCD, 19:00
Moycullen v DCU Saints, NUIG Galway, 19:00
Garvey’s Tralee Warriors v KUBS BC, Tralee, 20:00
Black Amber Templeogue v Pyrobel Killester, Oblate Hall, 20:00
Basketball Ireland Men’s Division 1:
LYIT Donegal v Ulster University Elks, LYIT, 16:00
LIT Celtics v St Paul’s Killarney, SportsHub Limerick IT, 18:00
BFG Neptune v EJ Sligo All-Stars, BFG Neptune, 19:00
Keane’s Supervalu Killorglin v Fr Mathews, Killorglin Sports Centre, 19:15
Sunday, 24th September 2017
Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League:
Griffith Swords Thunder v Eanna, ALSAA-Dublin, 15:00
Basketball Ireland Men’s Division 1:
Ulster University Elks v Dublin Lions, Ulster University Elks, 15:00
Titans v Ballincollig, The Jes, 15:30
Portlaoise Panthers v IT Carlow Basketball, St Mary’s Sports Hall, 18:00
