Killester and Demons clinch semi-final spots

AFTER an amazing weekend that saw Neptune overwhelmed by DART Killester and Mardyke UCC Demons lose an apparently unassailable lead before fighting back to beat UCD, the pairings for next weekend’s semi-finals of the NIVEA for Men SuperLeague have been decided with Abrakebabra Tigers from Tralee and Roma St. Vincent’s already qualified.

The big shock was at Clontarf where DART Killester, in an amazing turnaround, beat Neptune 125-74.

The Dublin side built up a 53-35 half-time lead and had the game won at the end of the third quarter when they were in front 92-54.

It was in stark contrast to their previous meeting when Neptune handed out a drubbing to Killester, who had won their first 11 games in the competition before losing their two Americans. After that they lost their way but this result now puts them right back in contention. However, they will face a major obstacle in Tigers, the defending champions and Cup winners.

The big difference last time was Mark Greene hitting 34 points on his debut for Neptune but, on Saturday Lawrence Young, Aaron Westbrooks and Damien Sealy held him to 11 points.

With seven players on double figures for Killester this was never going to be enough with Westbrooks, son of coach Jerome, scoring 19 pts.

After hitting 21 points in the first half, Sealy sat down for the second and there was just one American, Mark Greene, on court for the final quarter when Michael McGinn was the star.

Top scorer: Killester: Lawrence Young 28, Damien Sealy 21 and John Behan and Damien Morbley 18. Neptune: Daveena Hines 25, Michael McGinn 19 and Mark Greene 11.

It looked like another blow out at The Mardyke Arena yesterday as Mardyke UCC Demons shot into a 28-17 lead at the end of the first quarter with Damian Matacz on fire and Glen Worley playing one of his best games since joining the club.

Brian Clernon hit a three-pointer on the buzzer and scored another at the start of the second and with Matacz deadly from the free throw line, they led 55-31 at half time.

A 24 point lead appeared sufficient but that was before Jarron Jones went to work. He hit Demons with 12 points and, suddenly, the lead was down to nine going into the final quarter.

With eight minutes left Jones levelled the game at 72-all from the free throw line and Demons were in dire straights.

However, Clernon, came to the rescue with a three pointer, Matacz added four and Demons fans could breathe easy again on the back of an 88-81 lead that saw them through to the big weekend at The Mardyke Arena.

Top scorers: Demons: Damian Matecz 26, Glen Worley 18 and Patrick Pope 16. UCD: Jarren Jones 25, Lorcan Precious 23 and Barry Glover 11.

The women’s final will be a repeat pairing of the cup final following 10 point wins for DART Killester over Mercy Coolock and UL Aughinish over Vienna Woods Glanmire in the semi-finals on Saturday night.