BASKETBALL UCC Demons to Meet DART Killester in National League Final

UCC Demons will meet DART Killester in the 2009 Nivea For Men's Superleague Final after semi final wins over UCD/Marian and Neptune respectively.

UCC Demons ensured a repeat of the 2009 National Cup Final clash with DART Killester after UCC Demons managed to come through their semi final second leg clash with UCD/Marian on a scoreline of 87-59 and 165-137 on aggregate.

Demons' Head Coach, Douglas Leichner, paid tribute to his side after bouncing back from their nervy 78-78 draw and is now looking forward to facing DART Killester.

"I thought we were very focused," said Leichner. "I am so pleased with how we responded from last week. Shane Coughlan was immense this week and was an inspiration to everyone else on our team.

"I think next weekend is a showdown of the two best teams in the country," he added. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mark Keenan and his side and it's the game basketball fans will want to see.

"The likes of Colin O'Reilly, the two US players and the core Irish players have been tremendous all season for us and have got us into the position we find ourselves in."

Demons showed no signs of nerves this time round and lead 44-26 at the break before securing a comfortable win with Jerrah Young and Coughlan producing high scoring performances, while David Ryan hit 12 points for the visitor's.

DART Killester Head Coach, Mark Keenan, was delighted after watching his side progress to the National League Finals courtesy of a thumping 182-138 win on aggregate over Neptune.

The Dublin Giants held a 85-63 win from the first leg in Neptune and confirmed their passage with a 97-75 win in Clontarf on Saturday night.

"We are delighted to have produced two 20 point wins," said Keenan. "Obviously the key to setting up this tie was to get a good win away from home a week ago. We really came out strong down in Neptune and it eased the pressure a little for this game.

"It shows we have a good squad," he added. "We have had our injury problems with Michael Bonaparte going home through injury and Michael Westbrooks suffering a calf injury last weekend. The rest of the guys have stepped up and produced when it mattered.

"We got to the National Cup final and it was disappointing to lose but we are in the League final now and are bringing a good run of form into the game. We have upped our game in recent weeks and hopefully we are coming right for next weekend."

On Saturday, DART lead 52-39 at the break with Damien Sealy and Paddy Kelly finishing top of the scoring charts, while ED Millard finished the season with 26 points for Neptune.

Despite the defeat, Neptune Head Coach Stephen McCarthy is hopeful the experience of reaching semi finals in the National Cup and National League will stand to his players.

"Overall, we are pleased with how the season went but when you get to the semi finals it's disappointing to walk away with a defeat," said McCarthy. "We will take positives out of this season, we have a young team and hopefully all of the lads can take positives from this season.

"We played Dart in the National Cup semi finals and it was probably more disappointing to lose that because we were so close to them on that occasion," he added. "In the league, it was always going to be a struggle, particularly trailing by 22 points from the first leg. We worked hard to stay close to them in the first leg but they just pulled away from us in the end."

Meanwhile, in Basketball Ireland's Women's Superleague, DCU Mercy will meet Team Montenotte Hotel Cork after both sides came through their semi final two legged affairs against Bausch & Lomb Wildcats and UL Aughinish respectively.

DCU Mercy have booked their place in the final after an 81-60 win on Sunday over Bausch & Lomb Wildcats rounded off a 175-133 result on aggregate.

Wildcats put in a gutsy display, leading 36-34 at the break but the Dubliners put in a strong display after the re-start with Suzanne Maguire in excellent form.

Melanie Thomas signed off the season for Wildcats with 17 points, while Mercy's US star Jill Martin secured 14 points.

"It was a tough game," said Ingle. "Wildcats played well but we managed to put in a good third quarter and it helped us to go on and secure the home win.

"The whole season has been a tremendous effort by the players and we deserve to have got this far. We have to re-focus now and turn our attention to next weekend, which will be a tough game against Montenotte.

Team Montenotte Hotel Cork remain on track for a cup and league double but only after a nervy 122-114 win on aggregate over UL Aughinish.

Montenotte secured a 13 point win away to UL last weekend but the Limerick side produced a fine display to win 66-61 at Little Island on Saturday night.

Kirsten O'Neill hit 11 points in the first quarter with Maura Guiney contributing 9 to put UL right back into the game with a 29 - 17 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Montenotte's success over the past few seasons has been built around their superb defense and once again they proved so effective limiting O'Neill and Guiney to 4 points between them in the second quarter. American Jennifer Strong was beginning to hurt UL, scoring from jump shots and fast break lay-ups. Gillian Aherne was also showing something of her old form and kept the Limerick side's scoring ticking over.

With the final quarter remaining UL led by 5 on the night meaning they had to outscore Montenotte by more than 8 in that crucial last period. UL did increase the lead to 8 points with 5:11 on the clock. Once again the hugely impressive Montenotte defense stepped up. Walsh, Michelle Fahy and Niamh Dwyer all played out of their skins and had cut the deficit to 3 points with just over 2 minutes remaining. At that stage the comeback looked out of sight for the visitors and even though they added two more to their lead it proved too little too late.