Basketball - Men's National Senior Cup Semi Final

Wednesday, 9th January 2008

This coming weekend all roads lead to Dublin for the Basketball Ireland National Cup semi finals. Having got the better of Galway Titans at the quarter final stage AOL Broadband Waterford play UCD

Marian in the semi final in DCU on Saturday at 2 pm. St Vincent's play Tolka Rovers in the other semi final with the winners playing in the final two weeks later. AOL Broadband will have their work cut out to make it to the final, as the game is very strong in Dublin at present and it will be the equivalent of a home game for UCD Marian.

Of the eight teams playing in the Men's Superleague Cup and the Men's Senior Cup, Dublin sides occupy 6 of the spots, only Tralee Tigers in the Superleague Cup and AOL Broadband Waterford in the Senior Cup from outside the Capital have reached the semi finals stage.

While AOL Broadband have not had a good time in the league they have put in some good performances in the cup over the past two seasons and if they can pull out another one this Saturday they could well make it to the Final. Last Saturday in Tralee they put in an excellent performance and although they lost, it was just by a single point in what was a very close game throughout.

St Brendan's Tralee 70 AOL Broadband W'ford 69

From the tip off there was very little between these teams, Tralee had slightly the better start taking an early lead 8 pts to 4 after just four minutes, AOL fought back and with a minute left in the first period they were two points in front 19 to 17. Begadon, Vera and Toliusis getting most of the visitor's scores. The Tralee team rallied in the final minute pulled level and then made a three on the whistle put them in front 22 to 19.

AOL pushed up their defence throughout the second period and held the home side to just 13 points while netting 16, thus bringing the scores level at 35 each at the half. This time Darren Murphy chipped in with a big three just when it was needed.

St Brendans pulled out all the stops as the second half got under way and AOL were struggling to keep in touch, the Tralee team were four in front with five minutes to go in the quarter and looked like they were going to open up an unassailable lead but AOL hung in and finished the quarter five behind 55 to 50. Kieran Nyhan with a three, a two and a number of rebounds on both ends helped kept them in the game.

A tremendous effort in the final quarter almost gave the visitors the desired result going into next weeks Cup Semi Final but as hard as they worked they just could not get their noses in front when they needed to. An excellent defensive performance coupled with some good scores from Berry and Toliusis almost made it a very worthwhile journey for AOL Broadband but it was not to be and they had to be content with a moral victory that will hopefully stand them well next Saturday when they take on UCD Marian.

Kids Camp Every

Saturday 2 to 4 PM

Because of the Semi Final game in Dublin this Saturday 12th, there will be no Kids Camp. The Camp will start back in the WIT Sports Hall on Saturday 19th for young players between 2 and 4 PM. 2 to 3 PM will be for kids aged 7 to 11. 3 to 4 PM will be from 12 to 14.