Seventh heaven for UCC Demons as National Cup wait ends

In a storied history in the National Cup dating back to heartbreaking defeats in the first two finals in the 1980s, bottom-of-the-Southern Conference side UCC Demons pulled off another hit-and-run on the big guns with a stunning 82-68 triumph over top-of-the-table Cork rivals Ballincollig at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.

MVP Seventh Woods top-scored with 22 points for the champions and was ably backed up by 6'8" burly centre Elijah Tillman, but there were heroes right across the Demons roster, with the inspirational James Hannigan putting in a tour-de-force 11-point third quarter which played a major part in turning the game.

In a first half in which the fast breaking of Ballincollig provided a helter-skelter tempo, the interplay and intuitive connection between their Americans Shawndale Jones Junior and Andre Nation saw them never trail - and yet Demons were never far off the pace.

Woods and Tillman combined for 19 points in the opening two quarters for Demons whose persistence and stubborn refusal to bow was rewarded by Scott Hannigan’s close-in two-point play right on the half-time buzzer to keep the deficit down to 34-38.

Demons carried that momentum into the third quarter and powered by a pair of three-pointers from James Hannigan and one particular mesmerising fast break by James Beckom midway through the period, they took the lead 59-55 entering the final ten minutes, Hannigan scoring 11 points in that quarter alone having not registered a score in the entire first half.

The Demons surge was unstoppable in the final quarter with a sequence of scores from Hannigan, Tala Fam, Tillman and a three-pointer from Woods taking them 12 points clear entering the last five minutes.

They were not to be denied from