BASKETBALL: The Tralee Tigers continued their march to the play-offs with two victories this weekend, over UCC Demons on Friday and Killarney Lakers last night.
They have now opened a six-point gap over their closest rivals, Neptune.
They beat the Demons 78-72, despite the Cork club's new signing DJ Harrison contributing 22 points. But it was surely the derby success that will have given them the most satisfaction.
Killarney led by three points at the mid-point thanks to Tyrone Levet's scoring prowess - he eventually finished the contest with 39 points. Tralee upped their defence in the third quarter, as they came to terms with Levet.
Brandon Mason had a superb game, ably assisted by Robert Lynch and John Teahan, and they moved into an 11-point lead, 68-57, at the end of the third quarter. They continued to pile on the points in the final quarter, running out 99-77 victors.
Neptune recovered from last week's defeat to Star of the Sea to record a comfortable 88-75 away victory against Southern Conference bottom team Waterford, who now need a minor miracle to make it to the play-offs in March.
Neptune point guard Michael McGinn had a superb, 13-point game, ably assisting Kenny Gamble and Charron Watson - who scored 50 points between them.
In the Northern Conference, Shamrock Rovers breathed new life into their season with an 87-80 win over UCD Marian. Although still bottom of the league, the result makes the play-offs a realistic target as they are just two points adrift of St Vincent's and UCD.
Rovers got off to the better start with Chris Wiedenman and Dominico Marcario combining to give them an early lead. However, a sensational dunk from UCD's Cedric Peoples and good work from Kenny McFarland kept the contest competitive.
Kevin Foley came off the bench and quickly hit two three-pointers to give the visitors the lead, but again Rovers replied with three quick-fire baskets to take an eight-point lead at the break.
UCD rallied once more, but with Peoples and McFarland forced to sit out the opening minutes of the fourth quarter for foul trouble, Rovers pulled away with Ron Bruton excelling.
