Local basketball rivals Titans and Moycullen will meet in the quarter-finals of the 2015 President's Cup.
JM&L Titans and SSE Airtricity Moycullen booked their place in the last four with hard-fought victories over Maree and St Vincent's respectively on another cracking weekend of cup action.
Current cup holders Titans proved too strong in the end for their local Galway rivals Maree in Knocknacarra on Saturday.
The fast breaking Maree side, looking to avenge defeat at the same stage last season, built up a 9-18 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Titans came back firing, winning by 68-55.
Titans’ manager Denis O’Brien said Darryl Durham’s scoring proved pivotal.
“Maree started off quite strongly, and built up an 11-point lead after the first quarter, but in the second we managed to get our defence sorted and the team began passing much better too.
“We had Darryl Durham on post and the guys managed to create chances for him and we went 23-6 in that second quarter which gave us the lead. It was level pegging in the third, but we managed to add some extra points in the final quarter to just pull away in the end.
“We now have Moycullen in the semi-final, all three Galway sides on the same side of the draw. It’ll be another good game. These local rivalries are like a pendulum, they will swing one way. then the other.”
Paul Freeman, Ronan O’Sullivan and James Loughnane led the way on the scoring front for Moycullen as they came away from Dublin with an excellent 82-63 victory. The visitors raced into an early 14-0 lead and they kept their noses in front throughout to progress to the last four and a showdown with Titans.
There were also wins in the u-18 National Cup quarter-finals for Moycullen’s young stars as they saw off Templeogue on Sunday evening. Joseph Tummon dropped 20 points as his side came from behind in the final quarter to record a 67-51 win.
NUIG Mystics made it a memorable weekend for Galway basketball as they too claimed their place in the final four of the Senior Women’s National Cup. proving too much for Killester in a nerve-wracking finale.
