Demons stretch unbeaten run to 10

Basketball: Men’s National Cup

C & S UCC Demons are through to the Premier Men’s National Cup semi-final following a comfortable 74-64 second leg win over Killester at the Mardyke Arena.

The Cork side had a 25-point lead from their first leg and despite going through the motions in this game Demons took their unbeaten record to 10 games for the season.

In the words of player coach Colin O’Reilly this was another professional performance: “I think this tie was decided on Killester’s home court and to be fair we did enough today to keep our unbeaten record intact.”

BFG Neptune hosted UCD Marian trailing by 18 points from the first leg and once again failed to produce the goods on their home court, losing 91-88.

UCD Marian did not have injured American Preston Ross available and in a game of high physicality stakes they passed the test with flying colours.

In the words of UCD captain Conor Meaney this was always going to be a bruising battle: “It was cup basketball with two teams determined to win and, thankfully, many of our guys stepped up to the plate,” Meaney said.

Travelodge Swords Thunder trailed Belfast Star by 10 points from their first leg and had to show true mettle to win 74-62.

Swords led 36-29 at the break and in pulsating second half had to withstand a late Star rally to win on a 147-145 aggregate score.

It was a night to savour for coach Dave Baker as he reflected on the battling qualities of his team.

Baker said: “This was always going to be a tricky fixture as Star were on a run of three wins and they certainly were fired up to win this game.”

Swords Thunder will now play Templeogue in the only remaining quarter-final.

Templeogue were 85-76 winners against DCU Saints with American Isaac Gordon contributing a season high 42 points.

Naturally the Templeogue boss Mark Keenan was happy with the result.

“When you play DCU Saints focus is always needed and I thought our guys did relatively well in the second half to grind out a win.

“We now have a tricky quarter-final against Swords Thunder to contend with but we are still in the cup and that’s all that really matters right now.”

UL coach Paul Kelleher was delighted his team made it through to the last four despite losing 73-71 to last years finalists Dublin Inter.

The Shannonsiders had three points to spare on the aggregate score (146-143) but coach Kelleher is delighted his team showing tremendous resilience in this crucial quarter final.

Kelleher said: “It was all about not losing by six points or more and although it was a highly competitive game getting to the cup semi final will be a huge boost for my team. All clubs want to be part of the national cup and hopefully if we can get a few of our injured players back playing we will be a far stronger unit in 2015.”