National League Div 1

Scotts Lakers v Sligo All-Stars

Saturday at 7.30pm

Killarney Sports Centre

Your Scotts Lakers play their 24th and final game of the 2018/19 regular season on Saturday night and with a playoff berth already guaranteed, they can rest assured knowing that the hard work is done. For now.

The Lakers have their biggest match of the year the following Saturday when they face DBS Éanna in the semi-final of the playoffs, with the winner advancing to Division 1 final in WIT on Sunday. The winners of that decider will gain automatic promotion to the Super League while the runners-up will have the option of a playoff with the second-lowest ranked team in the top tier.

There’s no doubting that the Killarney side are outsiders at this moment in time but the prospect of Super League basketball is a mighty big carrot for the club to go above and beyond and cause an upset. When you look at it in the simplest terms, the Lakers are two wins away from returning to the highest level of Irish basketball. As impressive as they have been this season, there’s no guaranteeing that they’ll be in the same position 12 months down the line

Éanna will be an extremely tough proposition - they beat the Lakers by 16 points on February 23 – but Cormac O’Donoghue’s side rightly believe that on their day they have the potential to beat anyone.

Before that big showdown in Dublin, Paul’s have this home game against Sligo to worry about and while it may not mean much to the hosts, it certainly holds major significance for the opposition. Heading into the final round of fixtures, Sligo are currently joint second with the Dublin Lions in the Northern Conference with an identical record of 16-6.

The sides split the season series but the Dubliners lead by virtue of their superior points difference in those two games against Sligo (Sligo 80-77 Dublin Lions, Dublin Lions 110-100 Sligo), so victory over the Limerick Celtics on Saturday will secure second.

Strangely enough, the Lions game is tipping off at 6pm in Limerick, an hour and a half before the Sligo game, so the Lakers’ opponents will know exactly where they stand by the time the match in Killarney begins.

Although this is the final home league game of the season, local basketball fans will have the opportunity to see the Lakers in action at least one more time at the Auracle.

The end of season League Cup competition gets underway on March 30/31 and the Lakers will host the seventh seed team in the north, LYIT Donegal, in Round 1. If they win, they will also have home advantage in the quarters, against IT Carlow or Ulster University, on April 6/7. The semis and the final will be played in Dublin the following weekend, on April 13/14.

Pic: Eamonn Keogh.