Belfast Star captain Conor Quinn admitted that Eanna delivered in the big moments and deserved their Pat Duffy National Cup victory on Saturday night.
It was a thrilling battle in Eanna which went to overtime, but by that stage Quinn and Star’s English professional Max Richardson had fouled out, which helped the home side take control and book their place in the Quarter-Finals, winning 103-89.
“Eanna are a very talented bunch of guys and they probably played with a higher intensity than us from the start, and crucially they made big shots when they had to and we didn’t,” said Quinn.
“It didn’t help that Max and I fouled out, and our bench only had nine players to start with because Liam Pettigrew has a broken bone in his face and we had a few players away. But we’re not going to make excuses because Eanna were also undermanned and they still fought very hard, and when they were tired they made their shots.”
After a quiet start by both sides when many chances were missed, Star’s Conor Ryan hit a three-pointer to open up a seven-point advantage with two minutes remaining and by the end of the first quarter, Star were up 24-19.
Max Cooper came up with a couple of baskets at the start of the second quarter to keep Star in control of the game and American Maurice Jones found two big threes to push them into a 38-25 lead with six minutes left in the quarter.
Eanna struggled to match Star’s scoring prowess, and Conor’s twin brother Aidan made a superb steal before drawing the foul and nailing two free throws to help his side lead 48-39 at the break.
Then the game swung dramatically as Star’s offence dried up and Eanna moved up a level.
Down 63-58 going into the fourth quarter, Jones and Aidan Quinn came up with three-pointers to give them momentum and for the remaining six minutes of normal time, there was never more than three points between the sides.
With seven seconds remaining, Star were down 81-78 when Jones produced a game-saving three.
But in the five minutes of overtime, Star made too many sloppy errors and Eanna made their baskets to ease into the last-eight.
Star now have a weekend off before a double-header at home the following weekend against Eanna and Templeogue.