Ballincollig, Garvey's Tralee Warriors, UCD Marian and Limerick Celtics advanced to the Domino's MSL National Cup semi-finals following victories over Belfast Star, Killester, Flexachem KCYMS and St Vincent's respectively on Saturday.
Ballincollig managed to grab an 83-79 victory over Belfast Star.
Latavious Mitchell had a relatively quiet night by his standards with just eight points. But Josh Steel stepped up when he needed to with 25 points, including a lead-taking three with just under 30 seconds remaining after Rapolas Buivydas managed to tie up the game for Star after being down by as much as 22 points during the game.
The return of Robert Braswell was a huge boost for Killester; however, it was not enough as Garvey's Tralee Warriors defeated them 89-75. In a game where there were 11 lead changes, it was the duo of Jordan Perkins and Daniel Jokubaitis that carried quite a bit of the load after combining for 46 points of Tralee's 89 points.
Braswell managed to score 21 for Killester on his return to action, along with three other players in Paul Dick, Josh Wilson and Andrew McGeever, all scoring in double digits.
Joshua Reynolds hit five threes on his way to a 24-point performance for UCD Marian as they overpowered Flexachem KCYMS in an 81-75 win.
Ioannis Liapakis' men led by as much as 16 during the game, but Killorglin managed to pull themselves back into the game at 69-69 during the fourth quarter, but scores in the final minute from Sean Fitzpatrick and Daniel Conway secured Marian's progress to the next round in the cup. With their second win this season over Killorglin, UCD Marian remain in the chase to end a 14-year National Cup title drought.
Limerick Celtics managed to get revenge on St. Vincent's after a Domino's Men's Super League defeat just a few weeks ago, where Celtics secured a 112-89 victory to enter the final four.
Celtics came flying out of the blocks with 60 points by half time on 53% shooting from beyond the three-point arc. AJ Williams managed to drop 34 points in 38 minutes of play, along with a 25-point, 11-rebound performance from Finn Hughes, who continues his fine resurgence of form.
William Thomas had a strong showing for Vincent's, with 23 points on an efficient 11-18 shooting. The win is another notch for the promoted side, after Celtics overcame UCC Demons in the first round recently.
The semi-final draw will take place at 11am live on basketballireland.tv.
