Lose sees Lakers slip into bottom half
NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
IT Carlow Basketball 88 Scotts Lakers 77
FOLLOWING the previous week’s big win in the cup, Scotts Lakers returned to league action with a road trip to face IT Carlow Basketball last Saturday. Despite a promising opening quarter, the Lakers were eventually overpowered by the home side, who are challenging for a top four place on the league table.
The Killarney side were first out of the blocks and were the sharper side in the first quarter. However the foul count was 11-2 against the Lakers and this allowed the Carlow side in touch. Scotts Lakers led 26-22 at the end of the first quarter but IT Carlow came alive in the second quarter with American Jimmy Gordon in sensational form. His superb three-point shooting helped his side to take control while Lakers struggled and committed a lot of turnovers.
The Killarney side could only mange 12 points in this quarter compared to 30 points from Carlow and it was the home side that led 52-38 at the interval break. Scotts Lakers responded well in the third quarter with Dan Griffin having his best game of the season, rebounding well under the boards and converting a lot of scores. The Killarney side stayed in touch to reduce the deficit to 10 points at the end of the third quarter. This was enabled by some good scoring from Cian Clernon and Andrew Fitzgerald while the tactic of putting Antuan Bootle in a man to man defence against Carlow’s Jimmy Gordon kept Carlow’s American much quieter in the second half.
Carlow led 69-59 entering the final quarter as Scotts Lakers kept plugging away and managed to narrow the gap to six points midway through the final period. However, they squandered further scoring chances as a missed easy layup and a number of turnovers gave the advantage back to Carlow. The home side finished stronger and had 11 points to spare in the end. TOP SCORERS
IT CARLOW: Jimmy Gordon 36, Kevin Donoghue 13, Armands Kaikuls 8. SCOTTS LAKERS ST PAUL’S: Dan Griffin 20, Antuan Bootle 14, Cian Cleron 13, Andrew Fitzgerald 10, Philip O Connor 10.
SCOTTS Lakers were due to host EJ Sligo All Stars last Sunday but severe weather conditions prevented the visitors from travelling. The match is likely to be rescheduled in the next week or two.
Meanwhile, with 14 teams in Division One, the league will be divided into two sections in the new year. Depending on results, Scotts Lakers may finish in joint seventh but would probably miss out on a place in the top half of the league due to score difference.
There will be a Division One Shield to compete for in the 1B section, while Lakers also have a National Cup semi-final against Ballincollig on January 6.