Star hoping cup will finally run over

The men of Star of the Sea and the women of Wildcats have been the dominant teams in Irish basketball in the latter part of this decade and yet, paradoxically, they both have relatively poor cup records.

Wildcats, unquestionably the women's team of the '90s, only won the cup for the first time last season in spite of the fact that they were just weeks away from clinching their fourth league title in a row.

For Star, though, the wait for cup success continues and yet again this weekend, they enter the Sprite Cup concluding stages as favourites for the trophy. But the tag of being the team to beat has rarely hung more heavily on a club.

In their first cup final appearance, they were taken apart by a rampant, fast-breaking St Vincent's in the second half of the 1993 decider. Then, in 1996, they were hot favourites against the soon-to-be relegated Ballina, but the underdogs beat the desperately underachieving Belfast side, whose league campaign subsequently came off the rails.

But worse was to come the following season at the Arena, where they led Notre Dame by 31 points at half-time in the first round of the 1996/'97 cup campaign only for the Dubliners to claw their back and win before going all the way to cup success three months later.

However, despite their obvious hunger to rewrite their unenviable record in the competition, should Star prevail this weekend, don't expect their celebrations to be in any way unrestrained. The feeling is simply that records, whether good or bad, are meant to be broken. And standing between Star and a place in Sunday's final are tomorrow night's opponents, Blue Demons, lying third in the league and arguably playing just as well as the Belfast club these days. Demons, who only returned to national league action this season after a five-year absence, have only lost three times in almost three months. Their Americans, Dion Wingfield and Duval Simmonds, (who is struggling to shake off an ankle injury) are among the very best pairing in the league.

Star, with their tremendous defensive ability, are likely to try and shackle the freescoring Wingfield, but that might bring Demons's Bosman player Paco de Benito into the game more, and if his three-point shooting is on, then Star will have more difficulties.

While Demons's scoring threat is three-pronged, Star can plunder points from all over the court and, if their Irish internationals, Gareth McGuire and Adrian Fulton, are on form, they should have an edge.

Star, however, have so often failed to perform on the biggest stage in Irish basketball and there remains a question-mark over their competitive nerve, which has been seriously damaged by previous cup disappointments.

The other semi-final, tonight's duel between Notre Dame and St Vincent's, is one of the most interesting games of the entire weekend. Notre Dame have been loping along at almost half-pace in the league, where they are comfortably positioned in mid-table, apparently holding out for a chance to become the first club in history to win the cup for a third successive year. In many ways, their form up to now can be disregarded. Also, the intense rivalry between the two Dublin sides has never been keener, particular after Notre Dame humiliated the Glasnevin club 96-52 early in the league campaign.

St Vincent's though are on something of roll currently and have fared much better in recent weeks, winning three of their last four league games, including a 12-point win over Star of the Sea a fortnight ago. Both clubs will have full-strength squads for tonight's game although the injury-prone Stephen McGuirk, of St Vincent's, is nursing a hand injury.

In the women's cup, it is almost impossible to think of any team other than Wildcats emerging as winners. The Waterford club, who have won 34 of their last 35 matches in national competition, are defending the trophy for the first time. In spite of their dominant form in the league over the past two years, the three other semi-finalists know that the champions are not unbeatable, incentive coming from Tolka's 74-72 win over the champions a fortnight ago.

Killester, who face Wildcats in tonight's semi-final, narrowly lost 69-62 to the Waterford club early in the campaign. Under the coaching of cup veteran, Pat McKenna, who steered Naomh Mhuire to three victories in the last five years, Killester can pose some problems for Wildcats but only if niggling injuries to key players, June Blount and Ann Hanly, clear up on time. The other semi-final between Meteors and Tolka is too close to call judging by their league meetings this season. However, should Wildcats progress in the other match, one would have to predict that Tolka would provide sterner opposition in the final.