THE COUNTIES produced a Croke Park football classic last season, and hoops fans hope the Dublin-Kerry rivalry will also provide a fitting climax to basketball’s blue riband weekend.

COACH Kevin Young says Shamrock Rovers Hoops will give high flying UCC Demons a big game when they meet tomorrow in the NIVEA for MEN SuperLeague semi-final clash at The Mardyke Arena.

IT may have done precious little to ease the disappointment of their cup final defeat two weeks earlier, but UCC Demons handed Abrakebabra Tigers a clear warning that their Nivea for Men SuperLeague ambitions could be under threat when they visited the Mardyke Arena yesterday afternoon.

DEFENDING champions, UL Aughinish, are back in the final of the women’s cup after a comprehensive 84-62 victory over Bausch & Lomb Wildcats.

TONY HEHIR will find himself in an unusual situation in tomorrow’s National Cup semi-final between UL Aughinish and Bausch & Lomb Wildcats at the National basketball arena.

DEFENDING champions UCC Demons will face Roma St. Vincent’s in the first semi-final of the NIVEA for MEN SuperLeague at The Mardyke Arena next Saturday afternoon while Merry Monk Ballina will contest the other place in the final with Limerick Lions.

WITH UCC Demons and Merry Monk Ballina waiting in the wings, the battle for the remaining semi-final places in the NIVEA for MEN SuperLeague reaches a climax tomorrow night, when Limerick Lions host DART Killester and Killarney’s Gleneagle Lakers travel to Dublin to play Roma St Vincent’s.

GLENEAGLE LAKERS recorded a sensational second successive victory over the table toppers and defending champions, UCC Demons (105-90) in another thrilling NIVEA for MEN SuperLeague clash in Killarney on Saturday.

UL Aughinish 71 DART Killester 42

REVENGE will doubtlessly form the core of Tony Hehir’s pre-game speech ahead of tomorrow’s Women’s SuperLeague Cup Final.

DEFENDING champions DART Killester and UL Aughinish, the side dethroned 12 months ago, will renew rivalry in the final of the Women’s SuperLeague Cup on Sunday week.

The first ever National Cup semi-final weekend tips off this weekend with an action-packed schedule of games.

ABRAKEBABRA TIGERS released their second American during the week, so Joe Quirke will be banking on his Irish players when the club host UCC Demons in the Nivea for Men SuperLeague this weekend.

DART KILLESTER let things slip literally in double overtime on Saturday night as they forfeited a very tight encounter with Neptune in basketball’s Men’s Superleague.

This Saturday, Ireland’s senior women will take on Sweden at the National Basketball Arena in the first game of their European Championships.

Mardyke UCC Demons 91 Abrakebabra Tigers 81

UL Aughinish 90 DART Killester 55

DART Killester 57 UL Aughinish 53

FOR three seasons UL Aughinish have ruled Irish women’s basketball with an iron fist. For that reason they remain hot favourites tonight as their defence of the National Cup gets underway against Vienna Woods Glanmire at the ESB Arena.

ON A weekend when three of the four cup semi-finalists tasted defeat a week before Cup final weekend, Limerick Lions got their challenge for the NIVEA SuperLeague play-off spot back on track with a sensational 107-98 home victory over Mardyke UCC Demons.

COACH Jim Nugent says Davenno Hines will be a key player as Neptune battle for a place in the play-off stages of the NIVEA for Men SuperLeague.

Brendan Mooney

In basketball’s Women's SuperLeague, UL Aughinish will be fiercely protecting their unbeaten record in their match against Dart Killester this weekend.

Tralee Abrakebara Tigers opening the defence of the Superleague title with a home match against Roma St Vincents on Saturday at 8pm.

Spirits are high in the Irish camp ahead of their final competitive match this year in the Women’s European Basketball Championship against Luxembourg at the ESB Arena this evening (7.30pm).

The first ever Irish women's European Championship qualifying match to be played on Irish soil will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 22, in University of Limerick.

IRELAND’S basketball teams begin the countdown to European Championship action tonight with the first in a series of friendlies.

A WIN for Gleneagle Lakers over Dart Killester on Saturday, a shock defeat for champions Neptune at Shamrock Rovers and an unexpected drubbing for double-chasing Mardyke UCC Demons at the hands of St Vincent's yesterday has added a new edge to the ESB SuperLeague.

University of Limerick67 Bausch & Lomb Wildcats42

UNIVERSITY of Limerick go into the semi-finals of the ESB Women’s National Cup this evening as the red hot favourites to retain the title they won last year. Since then they have won just about everything and are already defending their SuperLeague title from the front

SCRUFFY’S St. Paul’s qualified for the semi-final stages and a clash with the three time winners, Bausch & Lomb Wildcats after an impressive 77-67 victory over XLR8 Auto Drimnagh Dynamos in an exciting quarter final of the ESB Women’s Cup in Killarney.

KILLESTER got as close as anyone to runaway ESB women’s Superleague leaders, University of Limerick, but they still came off second best on Saturday.

UNIVERSITY of Limerick, last season’s team of the season, will launch a defence of their ESB women’s Superleague title tomorrow night with a home game against Scruffy’s St Paul’s.

The ESB women's Superleague gets underway this weekend, with eight teams participating for the 2004 title.

Sx3 Star's Gareth Maguire and Adrian Fulton, along with Mardyke UCC Demon's Brian Clernon, have been short-listed to receive the Irish Basketball Player of the Year award 2003.

MICHELLE ASPELL produced an ESB Cup final tour de force to inspire University of Limerick to their first major title yesterday.

Basketball results:

UCC DEMONS won’t be taking any chances with Tolka Rovers at the Mardyke Arena on Sunday afternoon (3.15pm) while Waterford Crystal will be hoping to salvage their season when they play host to the raging hot favourites, Sx3 Star, at the WIT tonight (7.30pm) as the remaining hopefuls in the ESB national cup battle it out.

This game could have gone either way with Scruffy's St Pauls and University of Limerick playing some great basketball in the ESB women's superleague.