Abrakebabra Tigers and DART Killester prepared for their National Cup final clash next Sunday with wins against Merry Monk Ballina and UU in the latest series of Nivea For Men’s SuperLeague fixtures.
Hoops gained some solace for their cup exit to DART with a comfortable win at home to Belfast Star, while DCU Saints continued their improvement with wins over UCD/Marian and UU.
Neptune earned an important win at home to Mustang St Paul’s with Limerick Lions emerging from their trip to UCC Demons victorious on Friday night.
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Merry Monk produced a good showing against league leaders and cup finalists Abrakebabra Tigers and despite trailing by 26 points at one stage in the third just could not get the scores down the stretch.
Monk had to prepare for the clash without Ronan McGarrity and Liam McHale, while Tralee were at full strength ahead of their cup final clash with CJ Hadley hitting 37 points to aid his team.
Despite missing key players, Monk showed heart and determination to reduce Tralee's lead to eight with five minutes remaining in the contest.
Monk had the ball on three occasions to reduce the deficit to six, but the experience of Tralee showed against a depleted Monk team.
Pete Strobl, who has played his last game for Monk after hearing of his release from the club after the game, hit 24 points for the Westerners.
DART Killester coach, Mark Keenan, was relieved to come away from their trip to UU with maximum points and head into their final clash with Tigers next Sunday full of confidence.
'UU are a tough side to beat at home,' said Keenan.
'They have a good blend of Irish and American players so we are pleased to have managed to get the win.
'We have had a busy couple of weeks so it was hard to keep our focus, but it’s great to get the win ahead of next week’s final with Tigers.'
Michael Bonaparte hit 25 points of DART’s tally, while Irish star Paddy Kelly continued his fine run of form with 18 points.
Bryan Niemen and Adrian Gross were UU’s top scorers with 31 and 25 points respectively.
Beaten National Cup semi-finalists, Hoops and UCD/Marian, enjoyed a mixed weekend with the former claiming a 92-74 win at home to Belfast Star, while UCD/Marian suffered a 114-106 loss to DCU Saints in the all-Dublin tie.
Hoops trailed by a solitary point at the interval (40-41) but cranked up the performance after the re-start to keep their hopes of gaining a play-off place alive.
Irish international Ian O'Boyle nailed a three to beat the shot clock and then added another on the next play as he began to find his touch.
Taylor Lay added 10 points for Hoops, but Jim Clements with five and Stephen Dawson with a couple meant that the teams were tied on 60 at the end of the third.
O'Boyle hit another three and Jonathan Reed penetrated for a three point play to give an early advantage to the Hoops in the fourth quarter and they went to claim the two points.
DCU Saints picked up two wins in as many days with a 114-106 win away to UCD/Marian before a trip to Belfast the following day saw a 110-86 win over UU.
Saints’ Irish forward Dave Donnelly was pleased the side have turned the corner after a miserable end to 2007.
'We are delighted with the two wins,' said Donnelly.
'We feel we can still improve our performances but we are starting to get back to good form again.
'It puts us in a good position although there are a lot of games to go. We want to hold onto second spot and push DART Killester as close as we possibly can at the top.'
The US duo of Kenny Gamble and Keenan Browder were instrumental in the win over UU with 29 and 26 points respectively and can now aspire to making a late surge towards the play-off places.
On Saturday, Saints proved too strong for UCD/Marian and were in complete control after the first quarter with a 40-25 advantage.
Another big three from Dave Donnelly towards the end of the fourth quarter saw Vincent's lead 76-92, before a couple of baskets from Keenan Browder at the beginning of the fourth wrapped for the points for Joey Boylan’s Saints.
Neptune gave their hopes of gaining a play-off place no harm at all with 13 points to spare in their win over Mustang St Paul’s.
The impressive Matt Gorman struck 23 points for Neptune, while Justin Wingaard was top of the scoring charts for Paul's with a tally of 23 points.
In Friday’s sole Nivea For Men’s SuperLeague clash, UCC Demons were left stunned at home to Limerick Lions as the visitor’s collected a 95-90 win.
In a poor opening quarter, the side could only manage 16 and 18 points with Matt Hall’s Lions holding a two point advantage.
Terence Todd was introduced into the contest for Demons and he helped to contribute to a vastly improved second quarter and see Demons go in at the interval 43-42 ahead.
However, the Lions weren’t to be swayed and some excellent shooting from player/coach Hall and recent recruit Jenar Harrison helped their side restore the lead to 67-65 at the end of the third quarter.
Demons fought back and fired into an eight point lead with Levi Levine and Shane Coughlan at the heart of the comeback but Lions weren’t to be outdone with a late rally and three pointers from Neil Campbell and Stephen King handing Limerick their most impressive win of the season.
Meanwhile, in Basketball Ireland’s Womens SuperLeague, Waterford Wildcats warmed up for their National Cup final clash with an 88-67 win away to a gritty Tolka Rovers.
DART Killester were unable to stop DCU Mercy who were desperate to return to winning ways after their cup heartache at the hands of Wildcats last weekend.
Mark Ingle’s side secured a 68-39 win with Mary Fox hitting 19 points.
UL Aughinish also suffered cup woe last weekend and were made to work hard for their win against a dogged Meteors in the capital on Saturday evening.
Jim Nugent’s UL held a 26-17 advantage at the interval but only only had seven points to spare in the end (43-50).
