Warriors suffer third defeat on the road in Swords

Swords Thunder 87 Tralee Warriors 80

TRALEE Warriors brave efforts just came up short in Dublin last Sunday where they suffered their third League defeat on the road. While it was always going to be difficult against a side who are second in the League, and have already knocked Warriors out of the National Cup, the Tralee side will be disappointed that they contributed to their own downfall with a display that was notable only for the brilliance of Trae Pemberton.

As a unit Tralee didn’t really function with the required level of consistency, and the number of turnovers, something which has been their Achilles heel in some of their previous encounters, was again all too evident.

Warriors started out with real intent attacking the basket at every opportunity, and with six different scorers contributing, included a three from Pemberton and eight points from Bogdanovic, they led 21-16.

Swords dictated the pace from the outset of the second, and at the midway point had overturned the deficit to lead by three. Unable to maintain any real control or rhythm to their play Warriors played catch up for the remainder of this quarter and were 44-33 adrift at half time.

Warriors responded in the third and out scored Swords 18 to 14, but were still seven adrift, 5851, going into the final quarter. Inspired by the scoring input of Pemberton who netted five threes in this period, Warriors kept pace and had reduced the deficit to four points with 2.42 on the clock. It a chance for Warriors to fashion a win against the odds, but forced to foul in their efforts to salvage the situation, Swords punished almost every single indiscretion from the free throw line.

With Goran Pantovic and Pemberton fouled out in the latter stages Warriors ran out of options and time, and will have to regroup quickly as they prepare to host the unbeaten League leaders Templeogue this weekend.

It’s a big week for the Tralee club, and an exciting one also, having announced that Garveys will be the main sponsors for the remainder of the season. It’s a link with the glory days when Tigers won the first of their three Superleague titles under the Garveys banner back in 1995/96, an era when Ricardo Leonard was very much the leading light.

Coach Mark Bernsten wasn’t exactly over enthused with some aspects of their play in last weekend’s loss, and is only too well aware of the huge test Templeogue will pose this weekend as Warriors endeavour to preserve their unbeaten home record.

“We had some good moments when we did a very good job at both ends. We lost, turning the ball over. We had the wrong people handling the ball. We turned the ball over too many times. We can’t expect to win doing that against good teams, and a lot were unforced. (They) knocked the ball out of our hands eight times. The turnovers were the key factor in the loss.

“I expect (Templeogue) to come in with a lot of confidence. They’re a nice club, well coached. They’re not going to come down and be nervous. We have to step up and be prepared. Darragh (O’Hanlon) is two weeks away from playing and unfortunately we need him this weekend. We knew this was going to be a tough stretch, and it gets tougher. We need a good plan to get prepared for the League leaders. We will see over the next couple of days who has the right mindset.” TOP SCORERS TRALEE WARRIORS: T Pemberton (42), D Bogdanovic (16), R Leonard (9), G Pantovic (6) K Donaghy (5) SWORDS THUNDER: A Calvin (25), I Westbrooks (14), JM Gil Narbon (14), C Baltimore (8), C Coombes (8), K Lacey (8) Warriors host Templeogue next Saturday in the Sports Complex at 8pm.