University of Galway Maree make the familiar trip to Cork’s Neptune Stadium at the weekend to contest the InsureMyHouse.ie Pat Duffy National Cup semi-final against Bright St Vincent’s on Saturday (5.30pm ).
It will also include the other semi-final between DBS Éanna and Emporium Cork Basketball (Ballincollig ) at 8pm, while Maree will also be in action on Sunday with their U20s also in National Cup semi-final action when they face Tolka Rovers on Sunday at 1pm in the Parochial Hall, Cork.
It will be a tough schedule for Ben Burke and Comhghall McCormack who are part of both squads.
UG Maree will look to continue the New Year as they celebrated the end of 2022 with another comfortable victory, this time by 92-69 over Neptune.
Rodrigo Gomez led the game with a 24-point display - including five threes - as University of Galway Maree built upon an impressive second quarter display to stifle Super League playoff hopefuls Neptune with a 92-69 away victory on Friday evening.
Neptune's Barcelona-born power forward Nil Sabata posted 11 points in the first period but he only added two more across the three subsequent quarters as Maree cranked up the defensive intensity before half-time.
Haines had 19 and enjoyed a 13-point second quarter, as the visitors absorbed their hosts' energetic start before responding with staunch defence themselves.
Forcing turnovers and making it harder to circulate possession with any purpose, Charlie Crowley's side showed active hands and regularly scored down the other end.
In addition to Haines' inspired efforts, there was dependable ball-handling by Eoin Rockall and Stephen Commins, who finished with 15 points and four triples.
Neptune, who appeared content to trade baskets during this sequence, had multiple three-point attempts with mixed results before half-time. Their 28-year-old guard Roy Downey scored two on consecutive possessions to get the crowd excited, but that was an exception to the rule.
All of Haines' points came from mid-range, while Rockall and Zach Light's off-ball defence in particular proved problematic for the hosts, who headed into the break with a four-point deficit. It would soon balloon into double-digits.
Centre Zvonimir Cutuk had his most productive outing since mid-November in the scoring department, posting 18 points in 30 minutes. Gomez and Cian Heaphy traded corner threes, before Cutuk showed timely anticipation to box out and rebound Gomez's missed layup, converting second chance points of his own.
By this stage Neptune were down 11 and scoring became increasingly infrequent from their perspective. And in their final appearance of the year, Maree forced Neptune into two quarters where they only managed 25 points combined.
Scorers for Energywise Neptune: Nil Sabata 13, Xavier Arriaga 12, Kelvin O’Donoghue 11, Cian Heaphy 10, Roy Downey 9, Gary Walsh 8, Daniel O’Sullivan 3, Caleb Leahy 3.
Scorers for University of Galway Maree : Rodrigo Gomez 24, Jarett Haines 19, Zvonimir Cutuk 18, Stephen Commins 15, Eoin Rockall 5, Paul Freeman 3, Zach Light 3, Matthew Sweeney 2, Cathal Finn 2, Malik Thiam 1.
Energywise Neptune: Starting line-up: Gary Walsh, Cian Heaphy, Kelvin O’Donoghue, Xavier Arriaga, Nil Sabata. Bench: Jordan Evans, Caleb Leahy, Roy Downey, Daniel O’Sullivan, Jordan Blount, Adam Heaphy. University of Galway Maree: Starting line-up: Stephen Commins, Eoin Rockall, Rodrigo Gomez, Jarett Haines, Zvonmir Cutuk. Bench: Cathal Finn, Ben Burke, Zach Light, Matthew Sweeney, John Burke, Malik Thiam, Paul Freeman.
