Tigers send out final warning
All the attention was focused on returning star Kieran Donaghy but Dave Fanning stole the show with a stunning third-quarter total of six three-pointers at the Tralee Sports Centre on Saturday night as Tigers beat Killarney rivals, Mustang Sally’s/St Paul’s 107-100.
Fanning decided the game in the third quarter when he put Tigers 25 points ahead to put the game out of reach of Cormac O’Donoghue’s side.
Racing into an early lead, Tigers led 29-18 at the end of the first quarter. Antonio Cool led a Killarney fightback with three three-pointers in the second but Micheál Quirke got clear to score 14 of his 16 points and Tigers led 48-42 at half time before Fanning’s onslaught in the third quarter.
“We ran our bench after that and, to be honest, I think Cormac O’Donoghue did the same,” Tigers’ coach Dave Falvey said. “The game was always going to be about Kieran Donaghy and he was a great addition to the squad. He scored 18 points and was involved in some big plays.
“He had a couple of basketball games while he was in Australia with the Kerry football team and he has been shooting the ball every day with James Mooney since he returned so he wasn’t out of touch.
“But, having said that Dave Fanning was the man. He had some great baskets and ended up with a top score of 31. Micheál (Quirke) played football with Kerins O’Rahillys earlier in the day but we could rotate him and Kieran Donaghy.”
UCC Demons’ coach, Pat Price, was also happy with their 88-72 victory over Limerick Lions at the Mardyke Arena, where young Niall Murphy hit the game high of 26 points to underscore the fact he is ready to take his place at the National Basketball Arena next weekend.
Shane Coughlan was handed his first start after a frustrating season that was all but shattered by a troublesome hand injury.
Ice-cool Coughlan is a cup specialist — he decided two titles from the line — and has shown in recent weeks he is ready to play another a major role.
Yesterday Benito Flores was the link man between offence and defence and took the game away from Limerick with seven steals.
Limerick, after beating Neptune 92-82 for a long overdue SuperLeague win on Saturday night, were bound to be feeling the effects of that.
Demons led 44-34 at half time and built on that with Leshon Sheffield ending up with 21 points and Flores hitting 20.
“It was a solid rather than a spectacular performance,” coach Price insisted. “Offensively there are things we will have to continue to work on but we now have balance.
“All of a sudden, we have a decent team but it is just four or five games old. We have introduced Michael
Plicta into the starting line-up, Benito Flores and LeShon Sheffield are new and we have Shane Coughlan back.”
Merry Monk Ballina continue to dominate the North Conference with a win over UCD Marian (80-83), after Shamrock Rovers Hoops had lost their Friday night game to Star of the Sea 100-106. St Vincent’s made up some lost ground when they beat Star 112-106 at Glasnevin yesterday.
The two women’s SuperLeague Cup finalists were also in action over the weekend. Mark Scannell rested both Michelle Fahy and Denise Walsh as team Montenotte Hotel, Glanmire, beat Meteors 69-64, with Marie Breen adding 14 rebounds to her contribution of 23 points. April Cahalane and Donna Buckley each scored 12 points.
“We had five players in double figures,” coach Mark Scannell said. “We were 11 points up at one stage and really we should have finished them off. We were never going to lose.”
UL Aughinish never looked like losing either as they disposed of DART Killester 50-75 at the IWA leaving coach Jim Nugent singing the praises of an all-round team performance.
“It was really a matter of getting through the game without any knocks or injuries and we did that,” he said. “We were able to run the bench and give everyone good court time.”
Of the Irish players Fiona Scally, Louise Galvin and Lisa Palmer were particularly impressive.
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