Galway basketball clubs take a break from league action this weekend to continue their senior men’s National Cup campaign.
An Cearnog Nua, Moycullen host Longford Falcons at 5pm, while Galway Titans will entertain St Brendan’s Tralee at Renmore Community Centre at 4pm.
Both sides will hope to advance further in the competition and continue their recent run of rich form. Moycullen and Longford are no strangers to each other, having met in the league play-offs last spring, and on that occasion Moycullen snatched a dramatic win on the buzzer. Once again Longford will go in as underdogs, but as last year proved, they will fight for every basket as the cup is their last hope of glory for the season.
Titans’ current form sees them seeking their fifth consecutive victory, and they will hope their fast, free flowing, open play will prove too much for an ageing St Brendan’s. In the teams first meeting this year Titans came home with an away victory. While giant Tralee forward Ricardo Leonard always causes problems for the opposing team, it was Titans’ Paul Freeman who came out on top in the battle for inside dominance last time round.
Last Saturday Titans overcame a fired up Limerick Lions side 66-84 in an old fashioned shoot out in the University of Limerick Sports Centre. Limerick’s Matthew Hall lit up the game early on with some near perfect outside shooting, but Paul Peldzius and Paul Freeman led the attack for Titans with a combined 55 points.
With a league record of six wins and two losses Titans remain contenders for the Southern Conference top spot which is currently occupied by St Mary’s Castleisland, with local rivals Moycullen in second place.
An Cearnog Nua, Moycullen are also chasing pole position, and last weekend they achieved the expected victory at home to AOL Waterford by a comfortable 88 - 42.
Having beaten AOL Waterford on each occasion over the last three seasons, nothing less than a comfortable win would have satisfied coach Mardon, and they duly delivered with a comprehensive performance, totally outclassing their rivals and not allowing a single player for the opposition to score in double figures.
Cian Nihill, Nollaig Cunningham, and Garnett Griffin all connected for early scores before AOL Waterford, who had put up a solid performance in Ballina the night before, cut the deficit to four with threes from Kieran Nyhan and Remiglius Saligmonis (2 ). However young Dylan Cunningham came off the bench for Moycullen and hit five points to extend the lead at the quarter to nine.
In the second quarter the home team played some of their trademark smothering defence to break the game open. They limited the visitors to six points, while the Cunninghams, Dylan and Nollaig, and Nihill extended to a 43-23 half-time lead. By the third quarter the game was over as Moycullen had stretched the lead to 68 - 28, enabling the home side to empty the bench for the last quarter.
