Quirke inspired Tigers roar to victory
There they will face defending champions, UCC Demons, who had a facile win over a disappointing Mustang Sally’s/St Paul’s, 84-73 in the second semi-final at the National Basketball Arena yesterday afternoon.
When the semi-finalists were turning to their American players for something extra, Quirke rose above everyone with a game high of 29 points and a grand total of 17 rebounds — six of them offensive rebounds — to highlight his contribution.
Delighted Tralee coach, Dave Falvey, was singing the praises of the 26-year-old dual player — he has also represented All-Ireland football champions Kerry — after watching him break the stranglehold at a time when St Vincent’s, the reigning SuperLeague champions, threatened to take control of what was always a close game.
Vincent’s led 10-2 after three and a half minutes, but were battling against a fightback when they led 21-17 at the end of the first quarter, Tigers maintained their momentum and claimed the lead when they went 31-30 in front early in the second quarter.
After Dave Fanning had put them in touch with a three-pointer, Wilder August had tied the game at 28 points apiece seconds earlier. August had now taken his place in the driving seat and he would contribute 10 points in this quarter.
Joey Boylan turned to his overall depth to stay in contention. Seven players contributed to their 24 points in this quarter which had them back in front — albeit by just one point at 61-60 — going into the final quarter.
And that’s when Quirke hit for home. He ran up a succession of rebounds and two point baskets, landed two three-pointers and added two more points from the line in the closing seconds to leave Vincent’s reeling.
“You have to hand it to Micheál — he certainly produced it when we needed him to do it,” Falvey said. “He loves the big occasion. He always reserves his best for the big day — he has done it here before and you saw it again today.”
UCC Demons set up a mouth watering Cork-Kerry final when they beat Mustang Sally’s/St Pauls from Killarney 84-73 in a more subdued second semi-final that never looked like reaching the heady heights of the earlier thriller.
By the end of the first quarter the champions had built up a 10-point lead, 29-19, with LeShon Sheffield hammering the opposition with three huge three-pointers and he would eventually make six from 10 attempts.
At half time Demons had built up a comfortable 21-point cushion when they led 51-30 and, at this point, it was obvious that Killarney were not going to make it all the way back although just over a year ago they had performed such a miracle at The Mardyke Arena.
There was still a 21-point margin between them at the end of the third quarter although the pace of the game had dropped and players like Ger Noonan, Matthew Hilleary and Dainis Varanauskas had stepped up a couple of gears for St Paul’s. But Justin Wingard and Antonio Cool were marked out of the game with Tim O’Halloran and Benito Flores taking turns at limiting Winguard’s shooting power.
“We disrupted them a number of times and I could see there was a bit of uncertainty there,” Pat Price, the Demons’ coach, said. “We have been improving with every game since LaShon (Sheffield) arrived. He is an excellent player and I feel that after a couple of weeks we will be an even better team because of him.”
He admitted that the fact that they missed 19 out of 41 free throws was worrying. “There is still a lot of hard work to be done and some things for us to work on and we will be addressing those in the coming days. But we know we will go into the final as underdogs.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
