Conor Meany: Ballincollig best in show but is relegation between Cork’s big two?
Ballincollig's Latrell Jossell tries to get past UCC Demons' Daryl Cuff during their Men's Super League clash at the Mardyke Arena. Picture: David Keane
On Friday night Demons tested Ballincollig for long spells but turned the ball over late on and couldn’t do enough to get over the line. After pushing Star and Ballincollig in recent weeks, Demons fans must have felt they were improving and things were set to get better, but on Sunday things got much worse as they were well beaten 90-72 in Limerick.
What made the performance harder to stomach was the lack of fight and poor body language throughout the team as they looked defeated long before the final buzzer. Finger pointing and blame will undoubtedly follow for the defending champions, who were tipped as one of the favourites in preseason.
Danny O’Mahony will undoubtedly be under pressure although he should have credit in the bank after delivering a league and cup over the past two years. At least one American will change, and I don’t expect to see Shariff Black in a Demons jersey again as his two-point performance capped off an underwhelming couple of weeks.
With Limerick Celtics now on three wins, and having been close to at least two others, it looks like the relegation battle could be between Cork’s two big rivals. At the moment the biggest hope for Demons is that their neighbours Neptune are equally poor and after losing to Vincents in Dublin are also 1-8.
Ballincollig are the form team in the country at the moment as they head into a home quarter final of the cup. A shocking start to the year saw them drop their opening two games to Vincents and Limerick Celtics before they kicked into gear and after wins this weekend against both Demons and Sligo, they have now won eight in a row across the league and cup.
Latavious Mitchell has settled in well now and he’s an absolute handful inside. In fact, Ballincollig’s three pros are all excellent and compliment each other brilliantly. In the win against Demons on Friday night, in every quarter of the game Ballincollig had a pro in double figures scoring. Add in the very capable and experienced Irish players around them and I have Ballincollig as the best team in the country right now.
They’ll test that idea against the team with the best record in the country Belfast Star who survived a scare from UCD to win in overtime on Saturday. Star don’t have a good cup history over the past two decades so a big performance from them will be needed for the quarter-final.
When Cavan Eagles were aiming for the Super League, it was nights like Saturday that they were targetting. They went to Waterford against one of the league’s historical powers and beat them in overtime. It takes Cavan to 3-3 on the year, but it’s the first road win and the first against one of the major powers. Soleil Barnes was brilliant with 32 but Ciara Tolan deserves a lot of the coverage with her 23-point contribution.
The win sees both teams now on 3-3, and Wildcats will be reflecting on another home loss. Wildcats over recent years have had great defence but couldn’t always score enough when they needed it. This year after six games they are second in points per game scored on 77, but worryingly they are second last in points per game conceded on 77.2 which is far off the top teams in the country. They need to fix that, fast.
Meteors have had a lot of changes over the past couple of seasons, but what has been consistent is their ability to play defence. Seamus Donnelly’s team this year have matched that expectation and on Saturday they held previously unbeaten Killester to 69 points in a nine-point win.
Hazel Finn was brilliant with 24 points, but it was their collective work limiting Sam Haiby to just 15 that helped turn the game. Meteors won the rebounding battle and did a great job overall guarding the three-point line, limiting Killester’s excellent shooters to just 5/24 from long range. The win makes the league far more interesting as it looked like Killester were moving too easily towards a three in a row. They won’t overreact to the loss, but the chasing pack will take heart in it, that they are there to be beaten.
Killorglin were great for three quarters in Dublin as they led Eanna 67-53 with just ten minutes to go. Incredibly they managed just two more points in the final quarter as Eanna got momentum and never looked back, winning 76-69.
It was an odd final quarter to watch as once Eanna got going, Killorglin looked like they had no energy at all and often ended up shooting contested threes rather than attacking the rim. Usually when you see such a dramatic comeback, a team has to shoot incredibly well or a player gets very hot, but for Eanna it was just their normal balanced attack coupled with excellent defence. Killorglin have struggled historically on the road, but this shouldn’t have been one of those moments and it’s a game that has left a lot of questions about them. Maybe it’s that Eanna deserve all the credit, but Killorglin contributed to their own demise in this one.
Tralee deserve credit for an excellent defensive performance as they shut down a Killester team missing American Robert Braswell. A 62-point return rarely wins in the Super League, but it gave Tralee a 15-point win after Killester struggled to just 47 points.
For Killester, it’s a low point offensively in a season where they’ve scored twice in the 60s but have never gone lower. You have to go back to UCD Marian’s relegation season (22/23) to find a Super League team score below 50 in a game. Killester’s lowest in that time frame was 54 again in Tralee in a match where they had no American and both Paul Dick and Greg Adon were missing.
The absence of Robert Braswell is obviously a major factor in Killester’s recent struggles. The sharpshooter spreads the floor with his presence and allows others to get operate in more space. The concerns preseason around spacing and scoring with Paul Dick and Josh Wilson together are magnified when Braswell isn’t there because Andy McGeever becomes the only reliable outside threat and teams can collapse on Dick and Wilson too easily. Killester have the international break to get healthy, but they need their whole group together if they are to go to Tralee and win in the cup.
