Division One club Tolka Rovers qualified for the Sprite Cup play-offs next month after a surprising but not quite shocking victory over depleted Superleague side St Vincent's yesterday in Glasnevin.
St Vincent's had struggled all week to replace their injured Irish American Dave Conlon, and they missed his height as Tolka commanded rebound after rebound in a 96-92 victory.
St Vincent's utilised their more mobile and talented Irish squad of players to negate a great deal of Tolka's substantial height advantage, and at half time they led 4745.
But Tolka's Americans, Eric Stephens (32 pts) and Reggie Brown (28 pts) plundered many soft baskets in the second half, and with three minutes to go they had a 10-point advantage. St Vincent's almost got back on terms with a trio of three-pointers in quick succession from Mark Keenan, Karl Donnelly and their lone American, Andy Meyer (35 pts), but Tolka just held on.
In the tie of the quarter-finals, in Cork, Neptune rose to the occasion in front of a crowd of 1,700 to beat old rivals Ballina 86-74 with a vintage "run and gun" performance reminiscent of the great Neptune sides of the eighties.
Tom O'Sullivan, a key man in those all-conquering squads, proved his decision to make a comeback this season was a wise one as he led the Neptune scorers on 21 points.
The quick pace in the game was instigated largely by reprieved American Harold Joiner, who was released by Neptune and then resigned in the space of a fortnight recently. He contributed a lot more than his 20 points.
The other two men's quarterfinals resulted in the leading teams in the country at the moment, Notre Dame and Star of the Sea, progressing to an intriguing semi-final meeting next month. Star were highly impressive in a 97-76 win in Tralee, while Notre Dame showed signs of nerves in a 90-64 victory over non-league Blue Demons.
The young and inexperienced Demons squad placed an emphasis on particularly strong defence to hold the Superleague leaders level at the break (31-31). They continued to prosper in the second half to go five points ahead, before Notre Dame arrested their decline dramatically to take control and eventually win by a flattering margin of 26 points.
In the Women's Sprite Cup, all the favourites progressed, but only Tolka had an easy passage to the play-offs with a untroubled 80-31 win over non-league New Ross.
The holders, Naomh Mhuire, had a particularly tough time in the Dublin derby with Killester, even though they led comfortably by 15 points at half-time. Killester, though, driven by the irrepressible Ann Hanly (22 pts), pulled back to within a single score at the finish, but Mhuire held out to win 58-56.
Meanwhile, in Gurranebraher, there was almost a repeat of last year's shock before Wildcats eventually defeated Blarney 8073.
Wildcats, who have been in record-breaking form this season with an unbeaten sequence in league and cup, found themselves in the uncustomary position of trailing 35-25 in the first half before they found anything like the form which has seen them dominate the league campaign.
The Waterford women pulled level at 38-38 at the interval and the game was still tied at 60 with eight minutes remaining before Blarney got into the kind of foul trouble that stretched their squad. After Sandie Fitzgibbon was fouled out with more than six minutes remaining, Wildcats just edged in front and did just enough to win.
The 1996 cup winners, Meteors, qualified to meet Wildcats in the semi-finals next month after a 6245 win over Tralee which was also far from straightforward. The Kerry club, without a win all season, managed to stay within seven points of their opponents with six minutes to go before Meteors pulled away to win by 17 points.
