Neptune shake off testy Saints as Star banish Demons
The weekend results mean that the defending champions, 11890 Killester, will meet Star who have already beaten them twice this season in the semi-finals while the Southern Conference champions, UL Eagles, await Neptune who have also beaten them.
Star sneaked into the quarter-finals after cup champions, UCD Marian, collapsed at the business end of the competition and yesterday afternoon the Belfast side made the most of the opportunity by totting up a 20-point lead over Demons before the home side almost caught them cold in a dramatic finish.
Star’s experienced American, Clayton Longmire, contributed another 27 points, but when he was fouled out with three minutes remaining, Demons almost completed their comeback — drawing on the experience of Shane Coughlan and Niall O’Reilly — but the buzzer came too soon.
“We travelled down with great belief,” Star’s coach, Danny Fulton, said. “We were up 20 (points) at one stage but we always expected them to come back at us and they did, with the likes of (Shane) Coughlan and (Niall) O’Reilly leading like we thought they would. It was tough when Clayton (Longmire) was fouled out but we had some excellent performances from the likes of Stephen Dawson and Michael McKillop. Clayton has done an excellent job since coming in but the whole team deserves massive acclaim after losing the first four games of the season.
“Of course we can take confidence from today’s win and beating Killester already this season but they are loaded with talent and will be overwhelming favourites to beat us.”
Coach Pat Price was rightly “very proud” of his Neptune side after their 83-69 victory over DCU Saints who went into the game on the back of a winning streak that stretched back to January 1 and they had beaten Neptune just a week earlier. But Price claimed that the previous weekend’s defeat was a major help to his side’s preparation for this game.
“We were trailing to them last week by 22 points and came back to lead by one,” he recalled. “They won in the end, but I think we managed to plant the seed of doubt in their minds. We wanted to atone not just for last week, but last year when they were the team that knocked us out of the play-offs.”
Saints took a three-point lead into the second quarter before Neptune took control of the game.
“We were leading by nine at half time thanks to an excellent second quarter,” Price said. “That really was the making of the game for us.
“We hit 14 from 14 free throws in the final quarter. It was a sign of how switched on guys were.”
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