Lions lie in wait for deadly Demons
Demons produced their best-ever performance at the NBA to beat Ballina 118-101, while Limerick had to fight hard in the fourth quarter to overcome DART Killester.
If Demons can reproduce yesterday’s performance they will be hard to beat; coach Pat Price used his bench well, bringing in Colin O’Reilly to get 16 points.
Shane Coughlan also came into the game, and, despite a stomach bug, hit two big three pointers and grabbed six important rebounds.
Demons were always in control against a Ballina side without Liam McHale, who injured his back in training. The Mayo side stayed in touch for the first quarter and with 4:50 on the clock were level at 15 points apiece before Colin O’Reilly found the basket from the centre circle on the buzzer to put Demons 29-19 ahead; the Cork side led 57-45 at half time.
Seven minutes into the third quarter they led 80-60 and were coasting going into the fourth before a Ballina fightback cut the margin to 11 points with four minutes left. However, Ronan McGarritty was fouled out before Michael Doles added a basket and two points from the free throw line to kill off the revival.
“We anticipated the rally,” Coach Price said. “But it burned the energy out of them and we had the resources to finish the job. I was pleased with the performance. Shane Coughlan and David Murphy did an excellent job on Patrick Pope, and Niall O’Reilly has become a natural leader.”
Michael Doles top scored for Demons with 39 points, Gary Johnson had 19 and Colin O’Reilly 16, while Evan Pellerin hit 30 for Ballina, Patrick Pope got 23 and Paul Freeman 20.
Coach Tom Hehir was singing the praises of a rejuvenated Ricardo Leonard after Limerick Lions defeated DART Killester 70-63 to claim a place in the final for the first time since winning the cup in 2002.
Killester came from 13 points down with three minutes left in the third quarter to lead 54-53 midway through the fourth, but Ricardo Leonard stepped up, grabbing a vital rebound and then winning two free throws. He scored from both to give Limerick a six-point lead with just one minute on the clock.
“That’s experience,” Tom Hehir said afterwards. “We have a lot of young guys in this side and you need somebody as experienced as Ricardo to step up and show them how it is done.”
Leonard, 35, looked as if he was heading back to Neptune during the pre-season but when that fell through Tom Hehir snatched him and he has proved a valuable signing.
“It all worked out well,” Leonard said. “I think we lost our discipline for a time but we tend to do that. We were 12 points up in the third quarter but then we allowed them back into the game and they went a point up.”
They could have been in trouble yesterday but John Quigley missed five from seven three point attempts - four of them at a time when four points separated the sides.
Limerick led 23-17 at the end of the first quarter and outscored Killester 19-17 in the second to lead 42-34 at half time. They maintained their momentum until the closing minutes of the third quarter, when Michael Westbrooks began to stamp himself on the game with some spectacular rebounding. Jonathan Grennell landed a basket, Damien Sealey intercepted to pop another and Branislav Tomic went on a scoring spree that yielded three baskets without reply to leave just three points between the sides 52-49 going into the fourth quarter.
When Limerick reclaimed the lead, John Quigley hit them with a three-pointer to leave just one point between them and that separated the sides until Ricardo Leonard hit two baskets to give them some daylight.
“This win meant everything to us,” a relieved Tom Hehir admitted afterwards. “I felt we were the better team but then we lost our composure. Michael Westbrooks got quite physical on Rob Taylor but we survived it all and I think we were back on top in the end.”
Taylor top scored for Lions with 22 points, Jon Steven had 17 and Ricardo Leonard 15, with Neil Campbell on 11. Branislav Tomic top scored for Killester with 24 points, with John Quigley on 12 and Damien Sealey on 10.
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