THE championship winning celebrations of Tralee Tigers Basketball Club were curtailed this week by the IBA's decision to suspend the Kerry club's star American Ricardo Leonard for tonight's semifinal of the Top Four against Star of the Sea at the Neptune Stadium in Cork.
The club was also fined £200 after the National competitions committee decided that Leonard's verbal outburst to referee Denise Rice after the recent league defeat by Delta, warranted stern action.
Leonard was penalised 20 disciplinary points for what was regarded as strong verbal abuse and in response Tralee have lodged an appeal against the one match ban, which will be heard by the national executive just three hours prior to the semi-final tip-off.
Meanwhile, Star of the Sea have their own problems with injuries ruling out Javan Dupree and Gareth McGuire, while Adrian Fulton is also a serious doubt with a groin injury.
All three missed the league defeat by St Vincent's last week although Fulton and Dupree were involved in the inter-varsities tournament. The Top Four has been revived after a four year lapse and if offers teams who have been frustrated in league and cup an opportunity to salvage something from their season.
Killester and St Vincent's contest the other semi-final tonight. While St Vincent's have won both league matches between the sides this season, the second of those only resulted in a narrow 98-96 victory which Killester will be keen to avenge.
St Vincent's will be without their injured captain, Mark Keenan, while Karl Donnelly is struggling to be fully fit. Killester are hopeful that Nate Frank's badly wrenched thumb will have healed sufficiently for him to match up to Rob Phelps and Scott Sytulek under the boards.
Sytulek made a fine return from injury last week by scoring 26 points against Star of the Sea.
A curious and ironic aspect of the Top Four is that the decision to stage the event at the Neptune Stadium in Cork did not inspire any team from the city, once the capital of the sport, to qualify for the post-season tournament. Even the host club. Neptune, league champions only 12 months ago, failed to sustain their form sufficiently in the closing weeks of the season to clinch a place and their absence will certainly affect attendances over the weekend.
