SuperLeague in for another week of thrills and spills

Week two of the fresh Basketball Super League Season gets under way this weekend with cross conference fixtures being thrown up for the Novae for Men Super League Men.

Teams will be travelling the length and breath of the country searching for more valuable points on put on the board.

An almighty clash will take place at the Basketball Ireland Arena on Saturday as Hoops contest their first home game of the season, playing host to Abrakebabra Tigers.

Hoops will be without Conor Anhart who has picked up an injury while Tigers will miss Kieran Donaghy who is in France training with the Irish International Rules squad.

The Kerry side are also without Michael Quirke who is preparing for a GAA Inter-county encounter with Terance McDonagh’s.

Hoops are looking for the public to get in on the special atmosphere generated by any Dublin v Kerry tussle, with their coach shouting their message: “We are looking forward to our first home game. We invite the community to come out, have fun, and be a part of Hoops basketball!”

Merry Monk Ballina will make the trek south to take on Limerick Lions at 7.30 on Saturday night at the University of Limerick.

Deora Marsh will be travelling with the Mayo men who have a full strength squad to chose from as they look to claim a victory away from home after last weeks defeat to Dart, Killester.

The Lions will be sweating over the fitness of both Matt Hall and Stephen King as they may not be available this weekend after picking up injuries during last week’s encounter with Mustang Sally Saint Paul’s.

The game is a warm-up for next week’s National Cup clash between the two sides in Ballina.

There will be a clash of the Universities out in Belfield with a 7.00pm showdown on Saturday evening as UCD/Marian face UCC Demons.

UCC Demons will be looking to recover after last Sunday’s defeat to fierce rivals Neptune while UCD/Marian will be hoping to build on their performance against St. Vincent’s where they lost by just ten points.

Sunday will see a showdown between Neptune and Dart Killester in the Neptune Stadium at 3.00pm. Both sides got off to a winning start last weekend and each side will be looking to keep the momentum going.

Neptune are looking for another big performance from Richard Joyce who netted 29 points last week against Demons. The game will see former Sasa Punosevac face DART Killester for the first time since leaving the North Dublin outfit to take up residence in the Rebel County.

Mark Keenan's full strength DART men take on Neptune after last weekends excellent win against Merry Monk Ballina. "The guy's were brilliant last week and thoroughly deserved the win against Ballina but Sunday is going to be a lot different.

Sasa saw us in that game but we are working on a few new things to surprise him. There is a great rivalry between the two clubs and with both of us at near full strength I am sure it will be a great game" said Keenan.

DART Killester’s SuperLeague Women will be making the short journey up Collins Avenue to take on Mercy DCU also on Sunday with a 3.30 tip-off. DART report no injury worries ahead of Sunday’s game, one the youngest of the Grennell family is looking forward to the encounter.

"I was really happy with the girls last week considering we were so late getting back for pre season while Sue (Altman) only got in on Friday. The DCU Mercy game will be tough, when the girls beat them in the cup semi final last year it was really physical and was perhaps the girls best performance of the season," said Grennell.

Mercy DCU also has a full strength squad and will be in flying form after Monday’s victory over Tolka Rovers. Fiona Carrick and Suzanne Maguire will line out for Mercy against their former club to add spice to an already fierce rivalry.