This Sunday the University of Galway Sports Arena plays host to a Maigh Cuilinn Superleague basketball game for the last time this season and it may well be the biggest game of the campaign to date for the Connemara men.
The visitors for the 3pm tip off are St Vincent’s of Dublin, one of the blue bloods of Irish basketball, but a team struggling for form this season who are closer to the bottom of the table than the top with a four win and 10 loss record.
“It’s a big game no doubt about it,” said Maigh Cuilinn head coach John Cunningham.
“It is the last one we have this season in the Kingfisher University of Galway Sports Arena, and as we probably need two more wins to give us a chance at avoiding the relegation play-off, then this is one we can’t afford to let pass by us without giving it a real rattle.”
Since the Christmas break, St Vincent’s have been the picture of inconsistency, suffering 20 plus point losses to Neptune, DBS and Killester but pulling out a very impressive double digit victory over a strong Sligo All Stars squad.
Their star combination is without a doubt the speedy American guard Donovan Fields and the big Serbian Stefan Zecevic, between them averaging 44 points a game, a duo that led St. Vincent’s to the National Cup semi final back in January.
Maigh Cuilinn’s Kyle Cunningham and Joe Tummon will likely be given the task of curtailing the exploits of Fields and Zecevic but will need to produce the goods on the offensive end themselves if the Galway outfit are to succeed.
Beside Cunningham and Tummon the continued good play of leading scoring Grant Olsson will also very much be needed while the impressive but occasionally inconsistent Matteo Liberatore and James Connaire will have bring their best too.
Maigh Cuilinn will enter the contest after a resounding defeat against table-toppers Ballincollig from Cork when a blistering 15 to nil start from visitors all but ended hopes of a Maigh Cuilinn upset victory before they began last Saturday in the University of Galway Sports Arena.
The normally stout Maigh Cuilinn defence appeared to have no answers early to the sparking form of Ballincollig trio of Jose Gozales, Pau Galera and John Dawson who combined for 23 points by themselves in the opening quarter, a period Maigh Cuilinn were ultimately to lose by 16 points to 35.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with that start,” lamented a frustrated Cunningham after the game.
“We competed well for the remainder of the game but it was always a huge mountain to climb to try and get the score back competitive after digging such a hole right from the jump.”
Indeed, Maigh Cuilinn did have some fine play in spells with Kyle Cunningham and Brian Gaffney in particular shooting the ball well to join the wonderfully consistent scoring of Grant Olsson.
What the Galway outfit never managed however was to put a sustained run together to get the game back to single digits and really put some doubt in the minds of the visitors from Cork.
After blowing the contest open in the early phases through Gonzales, Galera and Dawson, Ballincollig had the luxury of calling on the veteran trio of Keelan Cairns plus brothers Adrian and Ciaran O’Sullivan to quell any Maigh Cuilinn momentum before it gathered pace.
The visitors hot hand fell cold in the second period, managing only 11 points, but they were cute enough in their gameplay to not allow Maigh Cuilinn get going, allowing only ten points the other way and so a mammoth 20 point halftime advantage was their cushion at the break.
Unfortunately for Maigh Cuilinn, the third and fourth period played out in an all too predictable fashion with a now restored solidity to the Maigh Cuilinn defence not capitalised on for a lack of offensive output and returns of 19 points and 14 points in the third and fourth quarter, while sufficient to match Ballincollig, were never going to be enough to overturn the gap on the scoreboard built up in those opening exchanges.
“This was always going to be a tough match-up for us and Ballincollig showed their class in the way they played. We can have no complaints with the result,” admitted Cunningham.
“That said, we actually had a lot more positives I think than that scoreline would suggest. Ballincollig definitely didn’t have it all their own way and we gave them a right test at times, but in fairness to them, they had most of the answers when really needed.”
University of Galway Maree
UG Maree remain the team to catch in the South Conference when they host Bright. St Vincent's in NUI Kingfisher onSaturday (7pm ).
Obvious favourites to continue their run, UG Maree are 21 points ahead of the visitors having produced an 86-72 win on the road to Ej Sligo All-Stars.
There was just two points in it, 34-32 to the Galway club, with just under two minutes to go in the second quarter, but that advantage was 22 points 10 minutes later.
A strong third quarter saw Charlie Crowley’s side ahead 66-44 with 2’27 to go and they weren’t going to be caught after that.
It moves them to 11-3, and Crowley was delighted.
“Happy to get out of Sligo with a win. They put on a fantastic show and they really have a great set-up going on there.
"Both teams were down men, and I was delighted with how our guys stepped up and filled the gaps excellently. I don’t really care for records now at this stage. We have to take every game on step at a time.”
