Will surprise league defeat focus Ballincollig minds ahead of the National Cup final on Saturday?

Ballincollig’s incredible 10 game unbeaten run in the Domino’s Men’s Super League came to an end on Saturday when they went down to St Vincent’s 86-85.

This was a shock in every sense of the word, but the Saints will say different as they also managed to defeat the Leesiders in the first round 95-91 at the MTU Arena.

After a sluggish start Ballincollig led 16-13 but Vincent’s matched them in key departments and led by the minimum at the break 33-32.

In a high scoring third quarter Ballincollig got their noses in front but they only commanded a four- point lead entering the fourth period.

The Ballincollig player coach Ciaran O’Sullivan will not be happy how they managed the game coming down the stretch as they commanded a four- point lead with 43 seconds remaining.

A Josh Steel turnover and a basket from William Thomas reduced the deficit to 85-83 before another turnover put Thomas back on the line for three free throws.

The Vincent’s American nailed all three and although Ballincollig still had a shot to win it failed to drop.

On a night when Steel could only produce five points Ballincollig will hopefully get their act together before they play Tralee Warriors in Saturday’s National Cup final.

UCC Demons dismal run came to an end when they travelled to play Killorglin and came away with the crucial points 88-74 in their bid for survival.

After a season of inconsistency from their Irish players they really came to play in this game with James Hannigan (19), Daryl Cuff (19), Luke Sutton (6), Kyle Hosford (5) and David Lehane (3) giving them a total of 52 points.

Just as well the Irish players responded to the wake- up call as once again Demons Americans Jordan Washington (12) and Tamyrik Fields (7) underachieved.

Looking at the stats Washington was fouled out after playing 16.21 poor court time for a professional with Fields on court for 19 minutes.

This was a crucial win for Demons in their quest for survival, but they must get their professionals playing to a decent level if they are to avoid the dreaded drop.

In fairness winning in Killorglin is not easy and they deserve credit for digging out this result and their fans will be hoping they can continue to improve in the closing months of the season.

The other relegation threatened Cork team Energywise Ireland Neptune didn’t have a good evening on the road when they were comprehensively defeated by Belfast Star 95-79.

Indeed, Star had this game won long before the final buzzer as they basically shut down Neptune’s shooters.

American Michael Hayes was restricted to 12 points in his 30 minutes on court with Jordan Henderson faring a little better with an 18- point tally.

The third Neptune professional Adon Gregorio finished with 15 points but it was their slow start that came back to haunt them as they only scored nine points in the opening quarter with Star nailing 21 points.

Neptune shot the lights out against Demons in their derby win but they will not get the type of clean looks against the majority of teams in this league and just like their Cork rivals every game is a final until the league concludes in March.

Fr Mathew’s winless season in the Women’s Super League continued when they went down 78-59 at Trinity Meteors.

In fairness, Mathew’s Americans Laila Blair (25) and Stacie Jones (14) put up decent numbers but with the exception of Grainne Dwyer (10) the majority of their Irish players are struggling on the scoring front.