RECAP: Marian Rout Killester A Week Out From National Cup Final Meeting

UCD Marian were 20 points clear of Pyrobel Killester in their Men’s Super League clash on Saturday evening, but head coach, Ioannis Liapakis is keeping his feet planted firmly on the ground ahead of next weekend’s Hula Hoops Cup final between the two sides.

“It was an amazing win for us, now we are back in the race for the league,” he said afterwards. “Like last week, we kept the momentum. Going into next weekend, we’re trying to learn the lessons from last year – our mistake then was that we didn’t play the game, we played the occasion.”

Templeogue remain top of the table meanwhile after they overcame Maree in a 94-68 point win, while Belfast Star secured a 75-90 point win on the road to Griffith College Swords Thunder. DCU Saints left Cork with an 83-100 point win over C and S Neptune in the bag, much to the delight of head coach, Joey Boylan.

“That was a very offensive game this evening,” he said. “I’m not too happy with the performance but very happy with the win. I thought we let Neptune back in, we had turnovers and let them run, so we had to get back on defense. The first six minutes of the fourth quarter, they were right back in it and it could have gone either way so I’m very happy to get the win.”

Elsewhere, Moycullen got a vital win on the board when they overcame Keane’s SuperValu Killorglin 82-57 in Galway on Saturday night. A relieved head coach, John Cunningham said afterwards: “It’s great to be at home - that run we’ve had was a tough one on the road. It’s hard to get wins in this league, we had to keep telling ourselves that when we get home we’d do the business and this was the one. Hopefully it’s the first of a good few now.”

Demons took revenge on Tralee on Saturday evening, running out five point winners thanks to late pressure down the stretch. Girts Lazdans, Kyle Hosford and Brandon Watts all caused trouble for Tralee to see the Cork team home to victory.

Courtyard Liffey Celtics remain unbeaten at the top of the Women’s Super League for yet another week, after they overcame Marble City Hawks in emphatic fashion, 35-68. Allie LeClaire, Ailbhe O’Connor and Karen Mealey were all on form for the league leaders, as they head into next weekend’s Hula Hoops National Cup final still unbeaten.

Cup finalists Singleton SuperValu Brunell also head into next weekend’s showdown off the back of a big win, coming back from as many as fourteen down to see off the challenge of DCU Mercy, 64-59. Sarah Woods (20 points) was the big threat for the visitors early on, catching Brunell out on the fast-break with her desire to get ahead of the ball and they lead by eight at the half. By the start of the fourth quarter though, Brunell had closed the gap to just three points, taking the lead for the first time in the contest on a Linda Rubene shot from the corner with seven minutes to go. Danielle O’Leary was immense from behind the arc down the stretch, but having gone up three it took a huge steal from Maddie Ganser in the dying seconds to seal the win for Tim O’Halloran’s side.

“It was another good win for us, we’re on a bit of a run at the moment,” said the Brunell coach after the win. “It’s always good to get a win going into a Cup game. Now we can put the league aside and hopefully create a bit of history.”

Revenge was sweet for Fr Mathews meanwhile as they overcame Cork neighbours Ambassador UCC Glanmire in a nail-biter on Saturday evening, 82-74. A big push by the hosts down the stretch coupled with 20-point contributions from both Grainne Dwyer and Shannon Brady saw Mathews over the line in the hotly contested derby.

Speaking afterwards, head coach, James Fleming stated: “Today was all about getting a performance after last week - the Cup hurt us. I thought we were sluggish for the first quarter today and we didn’t execute well, but I thought we grew into it and when the game was on the line we had some big performances. It moves us nicely up the table, we’re only one loss behind Glanmire now, so we’ll rest for the next week and then we have Carlow and we owe them one so we’ll be ready for that.”

Speaking of Carlow, they launched a late comeback on NUIG Mystics in Galway on Saturday afternoon to deny the hosts their first win of the Super League this season. A 30-point game from guard, Courtney Walsh helped Carlow to a 67-74 point win, having trailed for the first three periods of the game. Elsewhere, Maxol WIT Wildcats secured a big home win against Pyrobel Killester on Saturday evening, with Allyssa Velles, Jasmine Walker and Stephanie O’Shea all contributing big points to see them over the line 70-65.

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