BASKETBALL/Weekend round-up: Ballina surrendered their unbeaten record to Killester on Saturday but not without another heroic effort from the Laurence Young and Ronan McGarrity partnership.
Liam McHale was fouled out in the final quarter but the basketball cum GAA star McGarrity showed his superior fitness by helping the Ballina footballers into the Mayo county final earlier in the day. He kicked two points in the victory over Crossmolina, before changing to shoot 22 points for the basketballers.
Just in case there are still doubters of his superman qualities, he then played the final 20 minutes of Connacht's defeat to Ulster in the semi-final of the interprovincial series in Castlebar yesterday.
Waterford turned around their poor season at the weekend with a double victory over Cork opposition, first beating Neptune, then the UCC Demons last night, after overtime. Jamal Johnson led the way with 49 points including five points in added time to ensure his side scraped home, a result that pushed them up to third in the Southern Conference table.
Also on Saturday night, the Sam Maguire Cup was on show at the Kerry derby in Tralee as the Tigers outclassed the Killarney Lakers in a tight contest. Player-coach Chris Craig's 34 points had a vital role in ensuring the home side stay top of the southern table with a 100 per cent record. The Lakers' season has reached crisis point as they have lost all of their five matches.
Killester's victory sees the north Dublin club go two points clear at the top of the Northern Conference, with Star of the Sea, St Vincent's and Ballina level behind them. JoJo Chambers helped Star to victory over St Vincent's but the northern club's weekend was spoiled by a 10-point defeat to Limerick on Saturday.
Elsewhere, UCD condemned Shamrock Rovers Hoops to a fifth successive defeat of the season at Belfield.
The Hoops have been boosted this week by the €9 million cash injection into their football stadium development in Tallaght by new shareholder, Conor Clarkson. No money has been set aside for basketball but it may yet have the desired ripple effect.
