Cork basketball powerhouses Neptune and Demons are under serious pressure

The faithful of both Energywise Ireland Neptune and UCC Demons believed it couldn’t get worse. 

After the weekend’s series of Men’s Super League games, there is a real worry that the superpowers of Irish basketball are now in serious decline.

A trip to the Neptune Stadium is always a pleasure and before their clash with Killester there was a real belief they could chalk up their second win of the campaign with the Dublin team down two of their best professionals.

For new Neptune head coach Ciaran McKiveney, it was an opportunity to show the faithful he had what it takes to get his team competing again with the elite sides in this country.

The first move for McKiveney was to fire American Roti Ware and replace him with Mike Hayes, a professional he had under his wing when coaching Titans in Division 1 last season.

Hayes chalked up one point from a free throw in almost 25 minutes of basketball and first impressions suggest he may not be the player he was in a lower tier. There is little doubt Hayes will need to be given a chance of proving his skills but will need to move his game up a few levels to satisfy the needs of the loyal Neptune fans.

In this game, Neptune were simply awful and lost 78-67. Their trip to Killorglin on Sunday was always going to be a tough trek.

Sadly, again Neptune flattered to deceive and despite commanding a 17-15 lead after the opening quarter, that’s as good as it got for them. They suffered a 28-point loss: 92-65.

Killorglin, who had played in Sligo on the eve of this game, shook the cobwebs off and basically blitzed the Blackpool outfit in the second and third quarters to take a 27-point lead into the final period.

It certainly was a weekend to forget for coach McKiveney and the American he brought with him, although Hayes did improve slightly from his debut with a 10-point tally on this occasion in his 30 minutes on court.

SHAMBLES

UCC Demons, just like Neptune, have serious problems in getting a win and their 98-78 defeat at Eanna was another shambles for the Sunday’s Well outfit.

The greatest showpiece in Irish basketball is the rivalry between Demons and Neptune and Basketball Ireland should be praying that they remain in the Super League.

Both clubs are struggling and Demons, despite coming in for strong criticism in recent weeks, put in another dismal display in this latest loss. Hard to believe in the opening six minutes, they trailed 24-8 and from that period were always chasing the game.

After dissecting the positives and negatives of this Demons team last week, nothing changed for this game and they find themselves in a real scrap to keep alive their Super League status.

The Irish Senior Women’s team put in a dismal display in their midweek defeat to Luxembourg before upsetting the odds on Saturday in defeating Bosnia & Herzegovina 94-67.

Credit to James Weldon and his coaching staff for getting it right in this game, as they played far better defence for this encounter.

The former DCU Mercy Irish star Lindsay Peat was a co-commentator for TG4 in both games and to listen to her summaries was a joy to behold as she simply says it and she sees it.

Peat, who played international rugby after her basketball career, has special knowledge and she certainly made both games all that bit more interesting.

The Irish team are playing Israel this afternoon in Riga that will complete a tough week for the squad.