Dogged Demons back in business

TEAM effort was the key as UCC Demons saw off DCU Saints, 86-71, to get their defence of their SuperLeague National Cup off to the perfect start at The Mardyke Arena yesterday.

A shock loss to HOOPS – their first of the season – in the SuperLeague at the home venue a week earlier sent the champions into this game with questions to answer.

But fans need not have worried as Joshua Johnson chipped in with 18 points, Niall O’Reilly 15 and Niall Murphy 14 to underscore a solid team performance that sent Saints back to the drawing board for a second successive season – last season it was the other Cork SuperLeague side, Neptune, that sent them tumbling out of the competition.

Fans were treated to a close game until the third quarter when, Demons, in typical fashion, gained the upper hand.

Coach Luke D’Alessio was delighted with the performance. “We played great defence today,” he said. “And we were able to substitute a lot of our bench players who worked hard. Being able to have a nine-man rotation allowed us to take Saints out of their game a bit.”

Hoops built on their victory over Demons a week earlier up in Galway where they qualified for the quarter-final at the expense of Moycullen thanks to a powerhouse performance from American Carlton Aaron who set the boards alight with a game high of 48 points.

Hoops were down in the fourth quarter by as much as 10 points with six minutes to go but coach Ahmad Smith believed both American stand out Carlton Aaron and guard, Joey Haastrup, played key roles in stepping up.

“(Joey) Haastrup played a really great game. When we were down he drained some important shots that brought us back up. Carlton Aaron had an outstanding game. Having him in the post really helped us out on the boards,” ” he said.

Moycullen’s standout player, Cian Nihill, was in top form by netting 21 points in the defeat.

“Nihill is a tough player and we wanted to take him out of his game,” he said.

Moycullen coach, Enda Byrt, said: “There is too much on Cian’s shoulders and I wish that the responsibility could be distributed more evenly. We had a 10-point lead but we didn’t know how to build and sustain it in order to win.”

In the only Nivea for Men’s SuperLeague game of the weekend, Killester sailed past a visiting Belfast Star 95-75, although they conceded 31 points in the first quarter and 46 in the first half before the home side shut them out and confined them to 29 for the entire second-half. “It was a sloppy first-half and then we turned it around,” Killester coach, Mark Keenan said.