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Ballina bounce into Cup quarters ESB Men's Cup - Round One   Long Necks Ballina 110 (61)   90 (46) O’Hagan Saints C Sweeney 31 32 S McGuirk D Marsh 24 20 K Donnelly T Smith 21 11 P Shuttlesworth The gym in Kilala was packed to capacity for the return of Longnecks Ballina to the big time. Ballina’s adopted son Deora Marsh, celebrating his 40th or maybe his 41st – the announcer wasn’t too sure – opened the scoring for the home side after a scrappy and frantic opening minute. Stephen Mc Guirk tried to get Saints off the mark with a three-point attempt, Shuttleworth grabbed the rebound and was fouled by McHale, and he converted both to give Saints their first points of the game. Shuttlesworth had a good first quarter, working hard under the boards against the bigger Ballina trio of McHale, Deora and Smith. Dave Donnelly levelled it a 4 apiece with 1.50 gone, and this was to be the closest Saints came to Ballina for the rest of the game. Saints were making tough work for themselves offensively and with just over 2 minutes gone Liam McHale spotted Channon Sweeney open on the three-point line, the former Ballina player slotting home his first of six three’s in the game. Sweeney killed Saints in the opening quarter, hitting his second three with five gone to put Ballina 12-7 in front, opening up their first lead of the game. Ballina went on to hit 9 unanswered points to move into a 22-9 lead with 2 minutes remaining in the quarter before Stephen McGuirk got his first basket of the game to make it a 12pt game. A basket from Fish, and a second from McGuirk cut Ballina’s lead to 9pts, 24-15 at the end of the quarter. Sweeney had 11pts at the end of the quarter – three three’s and a field goal, while Deora chipped in with 7pts. Smith and Sweeney were on fire for Ballina in the 2nd quarter, Smith opening the scoring for Ballina with a big three to make it a 12pt game again. Liam McHale showed he still has the magic with a nice baseline fake and pivot past Stephen McGuirk to put his side 29-17 in front with 2 minutes gone. Smith then stripped McGuirk at the other end, and Karl Donnelly, who came in for younger brother Dave, scored from the inbounded ball with practically his first touch of the game. McGuirk had a steal at the other end and spotted Fish on the break, who took it to the boards past McHale to cut Ballina’s lead to 8. But Deora hit 5pts without reply in 20 seconds, and Ballina went on to hit another 3pts without response from Saints to run up a 37-21 lead. Saints were struggling to convert their offences, as the bigger Ballina side blocked up the inside of the key, and grabbing all the rebounds. Karl Donnelly hit his first of three three’s in the game, but Sweeney answered that with two of his own in quick succession to make it 43-26 with 5 minutes left in the half. Saints went into a full court press, but Ballina didn’t feel the pressure and Smith scored two "slam dunks" in a row as he was left wide open in offence. Mc Guirk hit back for Saints with a basket and three-pointer in quick succession buy bosman Barrett put the home side well clear 61-40 on the have time buzzer. Stephen McGuirk came to life in the third quarter, hitting 8 of his 32 points in the game, and three’s from Karl Donnelly and Gareth Winders brought the visitors back in touch. The older Ballina players were tiring, and when Smith picked up his 4th foul with 4 minutes gone in the quarter; coach Sean McHale rested him with Tim Walsh stepping in to the game. Vincent’s enjoyed their best spell of the game in the third quarter with 10 unanswered points cutting the home sides lead to just 10pts with 3 minutes left in the quarter. The shots stopped dropping for Ballina, and Stephen McGuirk tipped in a Karl Donnelly 3pt attempt to make it a 7pt lead for Ballina – the closest the two sides had been since the first quarter. Saints should have sealed it then, Ballina were tired, they were on form for the first time, and it was there chance to go ahead and take their first lead, but Gareth Winders sent McHale to the line with a careless foul and Tittmann picked up his 5th with a silly foul on Deora, then Paul McStay and Tim Walsh hit two three’s in the final 30 seconds to put Ballina right back out in front with a 82-68 lead going into the final quarter. Smith was back in the game again, and Sweeny, who had been held to just 3pts in the third quarter by the excellent defence of Fish and Donnelly, came back into the game with an inspired assist to Smith to make it 88-74 with 4 minutes gone. Sweeney then followed that up with hi 6th three-pointer of the game and Ballina were back on top of their game. Stephen McGuirk kept St. Vincent’s hopes alive with a three-pointer with 4.50 left on the clock, cutting the home teams lead to 92-79, but at this stage Ballina looked certain of victory. Saints battled hard, but were grasping at straws at this stage, and their three-point attempts just wouldn’t drop for them. Smith put the home side over the 100 mark from the line and moments later enjoyed his 4th "slam dunk" of the game to compound Saints misery as it finished up 110-90. Saints greatly missed point guard Gerry Noone for this game, Noone suffering a hamstring injury in training the previous night. Fish was forced to play his first full game for Saints in over a season, and Karl Donnelly played his first ball of the season for Saints, and indeed it was Donnelly who kept Saints alive in the first half. Saints were killed by the on fire veterans Smith and Deora and the first half scoring power of Sweeney, who had 21 of his 31pts in the first half.       Burger King Limerick 96 (37)   83 (33) Tyrone Towers C Brown 40 23 S Turner R Lynch 18 20 C Mason M Hall 14 16  J Luis Supervia Burger King Limerick advanced to the quarter finals despite the departure of American Rock Winston who quit the club at the weekend to join BBL side Edinburgh Rocks. The hosts started the game very well with some excellent defensive work by Stephen Kelly (10) and Cleotis Brown (13). Limerick had a lead of 23-16 at the end of the first quarter. Tyrone Towers than began to settle into their game and fought hard to cut the lead to just four points, going into half-time 37-33. In the third quarter Limerick’s Matthew Hall stepped up his offensive game and scored 7 points on the trot to give Limerick a 49-37 lead after 3 minutes. Tyrone had no answer for Limerick’s big boy Cleotis Brown, who dunked inside and shot five three pointers to end the game on 40 points. The fourth quarter was basket for basket, with both teams scoring 31 points. Stephen Kelly and Matthew Hall fouled out for Limerick and playing only one American the entire game the team were visibly tired throughout the last quarter.          Thorn Killester 86 (40)   66 (22) Frosties Tigers Eric Jackson 21 24 Robbie Turner John Leahy 20 18 John Teahan Ed Randolf 18 6 Roscoe Patterson Ina one-sided first round game of the ESB Cup, Killester ran out easy winners over a disappointing Tralee on a score-line of 86-66, having led 40-22 at half time. Killester started out strong with John Leahy scoring the first three-pointer a minute and a half into the game. Tralee had a series of successive misses which was to lead the pattern of their game throughout. The first quarter ended 16-11 to the Tigers. The first half of the second quarter was basket for basket, five minutes into it the sides were close, Killester leading 25-22. This was the turning point of the game which saw Tralee trail for the remainder of the game. With some excellent defense, Randolf, Leahy and Jackson took the Tralee side out finishing the second quarter 40-22. The third quarter saw the Tralee side slide even further, with the injured Rikardo Leonard visibly suffering. Killester played the bench for the remainder. The first few minutes of the final quarter Tralee seemed to come back into the game by stepping up their defense, however it was too late for the tired Kerry side. Tralee’s surprising defeat was due in no small part to the injuries of Ricardo Leonard and Michael Quirke.     Neptune 77 (34)   71 (41) Hibernian UCD Marian S McCarthy  22 21 C Akers C Watson 21 20 K Ward B Finley 11 10 K Meaney A close, basket for basket game throughout, that saw Neville Charles be disqualified after a double foul on Brian Finley, half way through the final quarter.  Big Al’s Notre Dame       Clare Jets                         Clare Jets puled out of the ESB Cup on Saturday morning, before the first round tipped off. In a game that should have been an easy victory for Notre Dame, they now go straight into the quarter finals.   Waterford Crystal 97 (53)   83 (38) Abbey Foods Sligo D Cunningham 27 32 C Holmes S Massiah 23 20 M Trimmer M Norris 14 10 P Bree Waterford Crystal started well with David Cunningham scoring the first 7 points of the game and after five minutes Crystal had picked up a 20 point lead. Sligo reduced the gap to 15 points and finished the first half trailing 53-38. Sligo applied the pressure in the second half, going for all or nothing. With five minutes to go Sligo reduced the gap to eight points, the closest they were to come to Crystal. However, Waterford were always in control and had a comfortable 14 point advantage at full time. Sligo’s Mike Trimmer fouled out with four minutes to go. Waterford’s Eamonn Sheahan fouled out shortly afterwards.    Esat Telecom Demons 85(39)   75(38) Star of the Sea J Wiley 22 31 K MacFarland S Caughlan 19 20 G Jackson B Clernon 16 7 S Somersgill This game was nail-biting, basket to basket, nip and tuck all the way. Demons finished the first quarter 3 points ahead, (23-20). At half-time a point separated the teams and at the end of the third quarter Star led 60-57. In the final quarter, the teams were even, 75 a piece with a little over four minutes remaining on the clock. Demon’s Shane Caughlan was an injury doubt during the week but proved vital for the Cork team in this game. Demon’s upped their defence in the last four minutes, preventing Star of the Sea from hitting any, while they finished Round One of the ESB Cup with a 10 point victory.  Tolka Rovers 95 (35)   74 (33) Gleneagles St Paul’s J Fazande 22 37 M Carter P Boylan 20 12 W Maysfield J Jimez 17 10 D Griffin Tolka and Killarney were close throughout the first half with only a couple of points ever separating the sides. Both teams missed open shots leading to a low scoring first half. Paddy Boylan kept the game alive with some powerful blocks. The second half was a different affair with Tolka sprinting to a 22 pint lead in the third. Tolka upped the defence, allowing Killarney to score only 9 points in the period.  Killarney never gave up and came back into the game a little too late. Maurice Carter hit 3 long range 3 pointers in the last quarter. ESB Women’s League   University of Limerick 59 (33)   56 (29) Sasha Meteors N Cleary 10 15 K Hennessy M Guiney 10 11 N O’Keeffe D Breen 07 07 N Furey       Tolka Rovers 66 (34)   50 (29) Thorn Killester E Scally 15   E Brophy R Kelly 13   S Vaughan S Kelly 10   G Ennis Killester started off well taking a short lead. Tolka came back with Emer Scally hitting from the three-point line. Tolka had a lot of turnovers and capitalised on them with a constant fast break. Again Tolka’s fitness out played Killester.

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