Brunell to face Glanmire in Super League quarter-final as Ballincollig aim to finish campaign on top

Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell suffered another defeat in the Domino’s Women’s Super League, going down 73-62 to Killarney side Utility Trust St Paul’s.

By virtue of this defeat, it will be an all-Cork quarter final in the play-offs with Career Decisions UCC Glanmire hosting Brunell at the Mardyke Arena on Saturday, March 21 at 7.30pm.

Brunell came into this game on the back of two defeats and their form was suspect in the opening quarter when they trailed 20-12 entering the second quarter.

In the second quarter, the trend didn’t change with St Paul’s always staying in control in this low-scoring encounter and Brunell looked in trouble at the break when trailing by 15 points 43-28.

New American signing Kayja Williams (9) does not give Brunell enough on the scoring front.

In the second half, St Paul’s stayed in control and despite battling to the wire, the Cork side simply never looked likely to peg back their opponents.

A disappointing end to the Brunell campaign in a season where many of their Irish players have struggled to put up good numbers up and they will have to improve big time to make an impression in the playoffs.

ON THE UP

Ballincollig are now in pole position to win the regular season if they can overcome fellow joint leaders Belfast Star at the MTU Arena on Saturday.

In a season that has seen some strange results over the campaign, few would doubt that Ballincollig have been the best team in the country having already won the National Cup. This scribe is not a fan of playoffs to decide the Super League winners but that’s how clubs voted.

If Ballincollig win against Star they would finish with only five league losses and match up against the eighth-place club, who would show 12 defeats for the season.

To be eliminated by a team that lost seven more games would be a total injustice but in a democratic world, that’s how the clubs want it structured.

The survival battle to stay in the Men’s Super League continues for both Energywise Ireland Neptune and UCC Demons continues to the final weekend of the campaign. A clearer picture of the situation will be visible Wednesday evening following Killorglin’s rearranged fixture with Tralee Warriors.

A win for Killorglin would put serious pressure on both Cork clubs going into the final round of fixtures.

Neptune have a home game on Saturday where they face UCD Marian in a game that could well decide their destiny before they play Eanna in Dublin on Monday, March 15. The game at Eanna will restart from Neptune trailing 22-4 as this was when it was stopped when Cian Heaphy suffered an injury and had to be abandoned.

Hard to see Neptune getting anything from this fixture but who knows stranger things have happened this season.

UCC Demons looked a poor outfit in their 118-109 loss at Sligo All Stars in a game they gave a debut to American Andes Rivera. Rivera struggled but so was the entire Demons team whose insistence on not playing defence came back to haunt them.

Not for the first time this season, turnovers were the main takeaway a tally of 21 in 40 minutes will cost any team.

St Vincent’s will come to Cork confident they can complete a clean sweep of Cork teams this season having beaten Ballincollig twice, Neptune twice and Demons once in Dublin.