Results

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Round 1
02.11.1997	Denny Notre Dame	97	Kerry Spring Water Kilarney	73
02.11.1997	Amev UCD Marian	83	Star of the Sea	87
02.11.1997	Waterford Crystal	88	Longnecks Ballina	90
02.11.1997	Killester	82	Garvey’s Tigers Tralee	90
02.11.1997	Riverisland Castleisland	90	Marathon Sports St. Vincent’s	91
02.11.1997	Blue Demons	86	St. Galls	64
02.11.1997	Tolka Rovers	84	Dungannon	70
02.11.1997
	Quarter-Finals
14.12.1997	Marathon Sports St. Vincent’s	92	Tolka Rovers	95
14.12.1997	Denny Notre Dame	90	Blue Demons	64
14.12.1997	Neptune	86	Longnecks Ballina	74
14.12.1997	Garvey’s Tigers Tralee	76	Star of the Sea	97
	Semi-Finals
24.01.1998	Neptune Evening Echo	85	Tolka Rovers	78
24.01.1998	Denny Notre Dame	77	Star of the Sea	74
	Final
25.01.1998	Denny Notre Dame	79	Neptune Evening Echo	73

MVP: Lennie McMilian (Denny Notre Dame).

Men’s Plate

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Plate Quarter–Finals
02.11.1997	Sligo All-Stars	91	Burger King Lmerick	77
02.11.1997	Oscar Tridents	71	Mid Sutton-Baldoyle	91
	Plate Final
14.12.1997	Kerry Spring Water Killaney	87	Riverisland Castleisland	70

Report

In Round 1 of the Irish Basketball Association Men’s Sprite Cup in 1997-98 there were narrow wins for Super League teams Marathon Sports St. Vincent’s over Riverisland Castleisland and Longnecks Ballina against Waterford Crystal. Regional Cork team Blue Demons had a 22-point win over St. Galls (Divsion 1) and Division 1 team Tolka Rovers shocked high-flying Super League team Dungannon. Garvey’s Tigers Tralee, Denny Notre Dame and Star of the Sea won the three All-Super League ties. The Plate Quarter-Finals saw victories for Sligo All-Stars and Mid Sutton-Baldoyle.

Tolka Rovers, Denny Notre Dame, Neptune and Star of the Sea progressed through to the Semi-Finals when the Quarter-Finals were played in mid-December. Only the Tolka Rovers v Marathon Sports St. Vincent’s tie was close with the visitors winning by 3 points, 95 to 92. In the Plate Final played the same weekend an All -Kerry affair saw Kerry Spring Water Killarney triumph 87-70 against Riverisland Castleisland, with 25 points contributed by S Polownski and 23 by V Daly.

In the Finals Weekend over the 23rd-25th January at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Denny Notre Dame triumphed 79-73 against Neptune Evening Echo in the Final, where Lennie McMillian received the MVP Award for his 16 point contribution. In the Semi-Finals Notre Dame had knocked out Star of the Sea in a huge battle between the two top teams all season, and Neptune Evening Echo won by seven over Tolka Rovers.

About Basketball Ireland / Irish Basketball Association Cups

The Irish Basketball Association ran the National Cup for the Top Two Divisions as well as any regional teams that wished to enter in both Men’s and Women’s as well as Junior (Under 19) Cup for both Men and Women as well as a Junior B (U19) Regional Cup for both Men and Women. The Cups were Knockout (single elimination) from the First Round. They were replaced by Super League and Division 1 Cups when the Association rebranded as Basketball Ireland in 2003. The Junior (U19) Cups were replaced by Under 20 and Under 18 Cups. Other Cups included the Irish Wheelchair Basketball Cup and introduced in the late 2010s the National Intermediate Cup Competition (Tier 3).

References

Newspapers

[1] Anon. (1997) “A-Z of Weekend Sport: Basketball” Irish Independent. Monday, November 3, 1997. Pg. 34.

[2] Anon. (1997) “A-Z of Weekend Sport: Basketball” Irish Independent. Monday, December 15, 1997. Pg. 32-33.

[3] Anon. (1998) “A-Z of Weekend Sport: Basketball” Irish Independent. Monday, January 26, 1998, Pg. 31

Acknowledgements

Thanks to John Folan.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 19 December 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

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