Spears scandal forced Glanmire to pull together

Basketball/ National Cups preview: Glanmire could do with some positive press. The fact they even made it to the National Cup weekend is a tribute to the behind-the-scenes labours of club chairman Timmy Murphy and coach Sean O'Regan.

Talking to O'Regan last Tuesday lunch time at the National Arena, he was in remarkably good spirits considering he had just been "grilled" in front of the RTÉ cameras over the recent drugs scandal to have rocked the Cork club.

As a passing St Vincent's player noted, Glanmire has been put on the map by the whole affair. Not exactly how they planned to make their mark in Irish sport.

The Adriana Spears positive dope test is still lingering in the background, but Murphy, O'Regan and, most importantly, the players have shown remarkable resilience to reach tonight's semi-final where the mighty UL Aughinish await.

The first game they played after the Spears suspension happened to be the biggest in the club's history. In the days before the cup quarter-final against Mercy Coolock, Murphy was desperately trying to find an adequate replacement for one of the best players in the country.

At the eleventh hour they landed Nigerian international Mobolagi Akiode (now just Mo). Countless import players have arrived on the back of a decent paper trail but failed to live up to the statistics. Lo and behold, they unearthed a rare gem as Akiode's 24 points against Coolock proved.

"They thought they were going to play Coolock without an American so they had no choice but to step up," explained O'Regan. "The talent is definitely there. I knew that when I went there. In a way, the whole affair brought them together more because they had to do it. Then Mo coming in and fitting in like a glove - it helped!"

All of a sudden, Glanmire were a part of Irish basketball's bumper weekend. Now all they have to do is end Limerick's two-and-a-half year unbeaten run and deny them a shot at three cup titles in a row.

Sounds like mission impossible, but they very nearly did just that two weeks back, in Limerick no less.

"We should have scalped UL. It was our fault," O'Regan continued. "Now, can we take the maturity we gained for the UL game and bring it into practice next Saturday? If we bring the same game we brought to their home then we're there. Not there-there abouts - we're there.

"With Limerick the focus gets drawn every way. If we handle that right, and this is where I think all teams are going wrong at the moment, Limerick can be beaten."

With talent like Michele Aspell, Gillian Ahearne and the fit again Sinead Leahy, it's still very hard to see past another UL clean sweep. The real pity is the late start time of 9 p.m., which means the print dailies will be unable to provide any substantial coverage of the match.

The earlier semi-final (7 p.m.) pits Killester, unbeaten in nine games, against the struggling St Paul's. The Dublin club last won the cup in 2002, and, besides Ciara Fenton, are at full strength.