Belfast Star coach Sean Ingle hailed an “unbelievable” performance by American Deondre Jackson who inspired his men to their best win of the 2024/25 All-Ireland Super League season, defeating Tralee Warriors 109-100 in the De La Salle College gym on Sunday.
Jackson finished as Star’s top scorer with 37 points as Star bounced back from a shock 92-84 defeat away to second-from-bottom Templeogue in Dublin less than 24 hours earlier.
Tralee, fourth in the Super League, were big favourites to leave Belfast with a win but Jackson and Darweshi Hunter (22pts and five rebounds) along with twins Aidan (14pts and six rebounds) and Conor Quinn (13pts) took the fight to the Warriors and drove their side to a morale-boosting victory.
Coach Ingle said: “Tralee are an excellent team, a team capable of winning the League and we gave a phenomenal performance to beat them. It’s massive for us.
“I’ve said the whole season that we have the talent on our roster to beat anyone in the League, but the effort and intensity has to be there in the defensive end. It wasn’t there against Templeogue and we paid the price, and then we come out and beat one of the top teams in the League.
“Dre stepped up massively. He was unbelievable. He did what he wanted to. He made tough shots, and that was missing against Templeogue, and Darweshi made big shots down the stretch from the free throw line.
“And then you have Max Cooper, who had food poisoning and couldn’t play on Saturday night but turned up and gave us some great work in defence.”
Having led 26-20 after the first quarter, Star kept their noses in front until two minutes before the break.
The Warriors threatened to pull away, but Conor Quinn came up with a three-pointer followed by a Jackson basket and then the Star captain converted on the buzzer to leave the sides 49-all at half-time.
Three-pointers in succession from Jackson, Aidan Quinn and Conor Quinn towards the end of the third quarter opened up an eight-point gap and, going into the final 10 minutes, Star led 76-70.
Jackson was proving to be the difference between the sides as he produced some moments of magic and aggression, driving at the Tralee defence, taking his hits and making basket after basket.
A blistering start to the fourth quarter saw Tralee’s top scorer Marquavian Stephens (28pts) and Daniel Jokubaitis hit three-pointers, and those were answered by two threes from Hunter and one each from Jackson and Aidan Quinn.
Down the stretch, American Hunter went three times to the line and converted all six free throws to make sure Star sealed a great victory.