Basketball Ireland Super League (overtime)

Belfast Star 121 Demons 110

Belfast Star will head into a big double header in the All Ireland Superleague full of confidence after breaking their duck with an exciting victory in overtime at the New Forge Complex when they defeated Demons 121-110 on Saturday night.

After two losses in the Superleague, this was just what Star needed and it was local man Aidan Quinn, twin brother of captain Conor, who was the outstanding performer for the Belfast men, claiming 24 points, nine rebounds and coming up with three steals.

American, Maurice Jones was the top scorer for Star on 28. Max Cooper also had great stats of 21 points and nine rebounds. Max Richardson and TC Fields both had 18 points with three and five rebounds, respectively.

Man of the match Quinn commented: “This was a massive game for us after losing our first two games of the season so to get over the line was great. Demons are always tough and it was a really exciting game for the fans.

“From a personal point of view it’s obviously good to play well but it means absolutely nothing unless you win and getting it means we have the momentum going into two games on the road this weekend.”

Englishman Richardson, who also had a big performance, was full of praise for Quinn.

“Aidan is a guy who can perform every day of the week," he said.

"He’s the guy who is the next man up. He’s always giving 100 per cent, he’s always on time for practice; he has a positive mental attitude all the time and everyone can feed off that. It’s a big win for us, it gives us all the momentum we need going into the doubleheader on the road. There are still some things to iron out because we are still gelling as a team.”

Quinn edged Star in front at the end of a competitive first quarter with the first of four three-pointers.

Leading 29-24 going into the second quarter, the sides were tied at 40-all with five minutes remaining. Down by five with seconds to go until the break, Quinn came up with a great steal and converted to cut the Demons lead to 53-50.

The outstanding Quinn produced one of the moments of the game when he ran the length of the court to score and push Star into a 77-73 lead in a battle between two evenly-matched teams.

American Jones had a particularly good third quarter with 11 points and a Richardson three-pointer helped Star into an 82-80 going into the final 10 minutes of regulation time.

Quinn came up with a hat-trick of three-pointers inside a minute to give Star real momentum as they went 93-89 up with six minutes remaining. But Demons fought back with Elijah Tillman always a threat and with just over a minute to go he had given the Cork men the lead, 101-99. Star then suffered a major blow when captain Conor Quinn fouled out. Just as the Demons moved into a three-point lead.

But, Richardson came up with a massive three-pointer to tie the game and drew the foul but missed his free throw to give Star the edge. Star had another chance to win it but Jones couldn’t convert so the big crowd were treated to five minutes of overtime.

Jones gave Star a one-point lead with three and a half minutes remaining and then Quinn had a great finger-tip steal which Jones picked up before feeding the on-rushing Quinn to convert. Jones then came up with a couple of three-pointers to leave Demons crushed. Quinn hit the final basket to seal a massive win for Star who now face Killorglin on Saturday night and Tralee on Sunday afternoon.