Denny Notre Dame certainly anticipated a determined challenge from Neptune as they opened their defence of the Sprite Cup at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday night, and it was only in the last five minutes that they got the crucial baskets to bring them safely through to the quarter-final on a score of 90 to 77.
Currently holding the second place spot in the Superleague, Neptune began this tie with the more aggressive and effective play as Marcus Wally, Jon D'Orlando and Rasuel McKune worked on building an early lead.
Brian Benjamin and Ciaran Dempsey kept Notre Dame in touch before Eric Blair then turned the second quarter into a one-man show by shooting 16 points. Dempsey added six more to leave the sides level on 40 each at the halfway stage.
The lead then switched an amazing nine times in the third quarter, starting with Notre Dame, then Neptune, and ending with the superior defence from Notre Dame while Dempsey took his scoring total to 29. Neptune couldn't rally anymore and left Notre Dame with their 13 point victory and one step closer to the four-in-a-row.
Joint leaders of the league and last year's Cup runners-up, Esat Telecom Demons, had a slightly more comfortable affair when they knocked out UCD Marion with score of 80 to 73. Waterford Crystal, however, had to work throughout the four quarters to hold off the consistent challenge of Kerry Spring Killarney.
Waterford opened with a 14 point lead, as Dean Kavanagh scored seven of his season's 12 assists in the first quarter, but the Kerry side never let the game get beyond them after that. With just over two minutes remaining, the lead was down to three points although late baskets by Roscoe Patterson and Kareem Porter extended their lead to 70 to 64 by the finish.
Queens Graduates, the only non-Superleague side in this year's competition, almost caused the biggest upset of the Cup when losing out by a single point to Belfast rivals Star of the Sea yesterday. Incredibly, Star were down by a point with four seconds to go. Then Gareth McGuire was fouled on the shot by Bret Swartz, the two frees were converted and Star were saved for another date at least.
Both Burger King Limerick and St Vincent's made sure their path to the quarter-finals remained on course. Dungannon fell to Limerick 92 to 65 as they were outscored in the third quarter 34 points to nine. Vincent's also produced one-way traffic against Sligo Dairies who were down 23-8 at the end of the first quarter and despite fighting back to a nine point deficit, they were eventually sent flying 87 to 66.
The Clare Jets produced another spirited performance in their meeting with Tolka Rovers, but with Greg Haffner and Lennie McMillan on excellent form for Tolka, they eventually fell 80 to 74. The draw for the quarter-final was also made yesterday, the four games to be played on December 11th and 12th.
QUARTER-FINAL DRAW (home team first): Tolka Rovers v Star of the Sea; Denny Notre Dame v Burger King Limerick; St Vincent's v East Telecom Demons; Waterford Crystal v Killester.
