The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Lakers impress
SCOTTS Lakers bounced back from their national cup semi-final loss to record a convincing 20 point victory over Limerick Celtics in Killarney Sports Centre last Saturday night.
The Lakers are competing in the Division 1B section of the league for the second half of the season and are joint top of this section now with LYIT Donegal. If the Lakers can reproduce a few more performances like last weekend, they should be in a strong position to challenge for the Plate title in this league at the end of the season.
Scotts Lakers started really well with Antuan Bootle, Dailian Mason and Andrew Fitzgerald leading the scoring. Mason found his range from three-point land from an early stage but Limerick’s American player Matt St Amour was equally impressive racking up 16 points in this quarter.
The Celtics also had former Limerick football star John Galvin lining out for the first time this season and he was proving more than a handful under the boards. With four minutes left in the first quarter the score was 18 points each.
However, Lakers finished the quarter much stronger with automatic free throw shooting from Dan Griffin along with baskets from Fitzgerald and Bootle and the home side led 30-26.
The home side extended their advantage in the second quarter with further scores from Mason and Griffin. The impressive Justin Tuason also added to the scoring as further three-pointers from Mason helped Lakers to a 48-34 lead with two minutes left in the half.
Scotts Lakers enjoyed a 50-38 advantage at half-time with the outstanding Dailian Mason contributing eighteen points at this stage, while Matt St Amour led the way for Celtics with 25 points.
Amazingly, St Amour only went on the manage four points in the whole second half and this proved to be a huge factor in favour of Scotts Lakers. Killarney coach Cormac O’Donoghue made sure that St Amour was doubled-teamed most of the time to limit his scoring threat.
However, John Galvin was a shining light for Limerick and a big score from him and drawing a third foul from Antuan Bootle narrowed the gap to 55-47 with 6.20 left in the third quarter.
Limerick actually outscored the Lakers in this quarter by three points. Despite the Celtics slight scoring dominance, Griffin, Bootle, Mason, Tuason, Mark Greene and team captain Philip O’Connor kept the Lakers in firm control overall and the home side led 74 -65 entering the final quarter.
The Lakers continued to dominate with Philip O’Connor and Justin Tuason making early impressions in the closing period. Mason hit another huge three-pointer while Antuan Bootle clocked up nine points in quick succession and Lakers enjoyed a 20 point lead with five minutes remaining.
Despite having Mason and Bootle fouled out, Scotts Lakers lead was never threatened and young players Mark O’Shea, Paul Clarke and Cian Clernon impressed as the home side remained in firm control. Dan Griffin had his best game of the season and closed out the scoring to secure a comfortable 20 point win for Scotts Lakers.
Overall it was a superb all round team performance from Scotts Lakers with Dailian Mason leading the way hitting six three-pointers in his 24 points total. He has been a big signing and has made a very significant difference to the Lakers outside scoring threat.
A return of 17 points from 19 free throws from the home side was another satisfying statistic and a huge improvement on recent games.
SCOTTS LAKERS: Dailian Mason 24 points, Antuan Bootle 23, Dan Griffin 18, Justin Tuason 12, and Andrew Fitzgerald 12, Mark Greene 4, Philip O’Connor 4
LIMERICK CELTICS: Matt St Amour 29 points, John Galvin 23 and Emmet Browne 19