Donaghy and Quirke back for Tralee

The Nivea For Men’s Superleague will be decided this weekend with Abrakebabra Tigers, DART Killester, Neptune and UCC Demons all vying for the biggest prize in Irish basketball.

National Cup champions DART Killester will be hoping to keep their hopes of landing the treble alive when they meet UCC Demons in Saturday’s semi final clash at the UL Arena.

The availability of Kieran Donaghy and Michael Quirke has given Abrakebabra Tigers a huge boost ahead of their semi final meeting with Neptune.

DART Killester travel to Limerick with the National Cup and Conference A regular season title already secured but they will have to improve on their performances towards the end of this season.

Mark Keenan’s DART charges signed off the season with a surprise defeat at home to UCD/Marian and a repeat display would surely end their treble aspirations.

“It will be tough this weekend particularly with the possibility of two games in as many days,” said DART coach Keenan. “We need everyone to step up from the last performance (against UCD/Marian) particularly with Demons doing really well over the past few weeks.

“We certainly can’t take anything for granted. Our last league match was a huge wake up call. We lost it badly and need to get it out of our system. We have had good sessions in practise over the past week and hopefully we can repeat the success we enjoyed last season.

DART’s only injury worry is the fitness of the wily campaigner Jerome Westbrooks, who suffered a knee injury in the loss to UCD/Marian, while UCC Demons are at full strength.

UCC Demons ensured their passage into the final four with a nervy 99-94 win over Belfast Star in the quarter finals.

However, their end of season form has their coach Michael O’Leary quietly confident ahead of the weekend.

“We will have our work cut out for us this weekend,” said O’Leary. “My team has turned a corner over the past few weeks. We were suffering a slump in form but we have picked things up and we go into Saturday’s game in good form.

“It will come as no surprise if any of the four teams participating in the semi finals win the trophy as they are considered to be the best four clubs in the country.”

Abrakebabra Tigers’ hopes of atoning for their National Cup loss to DART have been revived with the unexpected return of Kieran Donaghy and Michael Quirke for Saturday’s all Munster clash with Neptune.

The Tralee side have struggled without their star duo in the final games of the season with an erratic run of form recorded in their final games of the season.

Tigers ended the season on a disappointing note with defeat to Kingdom rivals Mustang St Paul’s and coach Mark Bernsen is expecting a tough test from Neptune.