Keenan hails biggest win as Eagles reach semi-final

THREE Munster SuperLeague clubs are through to the semi-finals of the National Cup while defending champions, UCD Marian, and the league leaders, DCU Saints are out.

UL Eagles ended UCD Marian’s reign with a 72-62 victory in a low-scoring game and will meet 11890 Killester in the semi-finals, after they defeated Moycullen 83-69.

But the game everyone will want to see is the clash of Cork’s UCC Demons and Bord Gáis Neptune.

Demons, with Shawn Atupen, Ciaran O’Sullivan and Niall O’Reilly on fire, defeated Saints 89-74 at the Parochial Hall yesterday to set up the derby tie with Neptune, who beat Belfast on Saturday night 80-79.

This time last year Mark Keenan was coaching Killester but on Saturday night he was singing the praises of his new club, UL Eagles, describing their win over UCD Marian as “the biggest win of their season”.

Eagles with their new American, Robert Taylor, in situ led 45-30 at half-time and even though UCD Marian cut the deficit to seven, they were always in control.

“I’d say it is the biggest win for us this season,” said Keenan. “We played together as a team and Robert Taylor gave us real stability.”

When the sides met a couple of weeks ago, Eagles came out on top but Killester proved they have not gone away with an 83-69 win over Moycullen, who had the game tied 42-42 at half time.

“This was always going to be a tough one because no matter what we did, we would have been expected to win,” said Killester coach Darren O’Neill.

“Offensively in the first half we were impressive but defensively we were awful and let them back into the contest.”

Bord Gáis Neptune coach, Mark Scannell, was a relieved man after their one-point win over Belfast Star who led in the closing seconds before Neptune’s Ian McLaughlin stepped up for the winning basket.

“We probably didn’t deserve the win,” he said.

“We were very nervous and credit to Belfast Star, who made life very difficult for us. Ron [Thompson] scored 36 points and was probably the difference in the end. We’ll take the win, we were dead and buried at one stage but we got out of jail.”

And UCC Demons coach Paul Kelleher made no secret of the fact he is relishing a semi-final date with his near neighbours after their comfortable 89-74 win over DCU Saints.

“It’s going to bring back some great memories,” he said.

“It will be a fantastic occasion. We didn’t reach the last four last season so it’s a great feeling to be involved this time around.”

Reigning Women’s SuperLeague Cup champions, DCU Mercy, will face 11890 Killester in the last four after an impressive 78-60 win away to Waterford Wildcats.

Killester earned their second successive appearance in a National Cup semi-final with a 58-43 win at home to Ulster Rockets.

Team Montenotte Hotel maintained their fantastic cup record with an emphatic 84-60 win over Meteors to set up a semi-final clash with their arch rivals, UL, who defeated Singletons Super-Valu Brunell 63-50 on the other side of the draw.