Cork Basketball: James Hannigan drives UCC Demons to second Bank Holiday weekend win

UCC Demons 100 UCD Marian 86 

A James Hannigan masterclass eventually helped UCC Demons secure a crucial win over UCD Marian in a tense Domino’s Men’s Super League clash at the Mardyke Arena on Sunday.

Hannigan finished with 19 points and showed incredible character and accuracy when defeat stared his team in the face coming down the stretch.

The Sunday’s Well team had to dig deep playing with one American on court for the closing 15 minutes, but this win was crucial in their bid to stave off their relegation threat.

Another plus for Demons was the return of James Beckom after 15 months out of action and he reminded the home fans what they have been missing in defence.

Demons got a good start when a neat Tamyrik Fields jumper set the tone in the opening possession that was quickly followed by a Tala Fam slammer.

The home side were playing a stringent man to man defence, but the visitors were finding gaps and following a long- range Bruce Saintilus three pointer they surged into a 12-10 lead.

The home side responded immediately with Fields showing nice touches to the hoop and they restored a three- point lead midway through the quarter.

In fairness there was a carnival atmosphere at Dyke and the home crowd were treated to some superb basketball in the opening quarter and when Fam finished in style with a drive to the hoop in the seventh minute it helped his side take a nine- point lead.

Right on the buzzer Demons had a chance to finish the quarter in style but Blake Murphy mistimed a lay-up as Demons still commanded a 15- point lead 32-17 entering the second quarter.

For two minutes the scoring on both sides dried up but Demons continued to play at a ferocious pace with Fields having a solid game in the offence court and midway through the quarter they increased their lead to 18 points 47-29.

All season at this venue this Demons team when having a comfortable lead in games they have imploded and in another scrappy phase they allowed their opponents punish them with three unanswered baskets that reduced the deficit to 12 points.

Luckily Fields had one last trick in the bag and a late basket from the American ensured Demons went in at the break with a 53-39 lead.

Demons half time stats were 19/29 inside the arc (66%) and outside the paint they only attempted six and made 1 (17%).

On the restart schoolboy turnovers saw UCD Marian reduce the deficit to eight points in the 23rd minute with the home side looking all at sea.

Despite Demons continuing to struggle no time out was called until six minutes into the quarter when the deficit was reduced to three points 63-60.

Suddenly Demons didn’t know what to do at either end of the court and when Michael Linde scored an unchallenged lay up from a turnover UCD edged into a 65-63 lead.

The pressure was now on Demons and with calls going against them big time UCD looked in ascendancy.

The home side were fortunate to produce a three pointer in the closing minute from Fields that gave them a slender one- point lead 70-69 entering the fourth quarter.

Coming down stretch Demons helped by the brilliance of Hannigan and tremendous team spirit eventually saw off the resilient UCD challenge who to be fair gave their all from start to finish.

Top scorers for UCC Demons: T Fields 27, J Hannigan 19, T Fam 15, J Washington 15.

UCD Marian: Z Hinton 26, B Saintilius 16, S Fitzpatrick 10.

UCC DEMONS: B Murphy, S Hannigan, J Washington, L Sutton, K Hosford, J Hannagan, D Lehane, T Fam, C Looney, L Livuvu, D Cuff, B Horgan.

UCD MARIAN: J Kehoe, S O’Flynn, Jambon-Conway, T Maguire, J Connaire, R Byrne, S Fitzpatrick, T Graham, M Linde, S Mitiiadis, B Saintilus, C Tiernan.

Referees: M Nazimek (Dublin), E Buckley (Kerry), M Landos (Portlaoise).