A BUSY few days await for the Killarney Cougars national league team as Limerick Celtics and Cork’s Fr Mathews will be town to take on the home side.
Cougars are boosted by the completion of the signing of highly-rated Spanish youth player Jaime Fernandez from CB EStudio EBA Liga in recent days.
The will play Limerick Celtics in the Pres Gym on this Thursday (8.00pm) and Fr Mathews will visit on Saturday, at the same venue, with a 7.30pm tip-off.
In their most recent outing, Cougars suffered a 64-74 reverse against IT Carlow, having made the long journey for a midday tip-off.
A slow start proved costly as the visitors were quickly out of the blocks to lead 21-10 with foul trouble for Justin Tuason an early concern with Nate Shafer hurting Cougars inside on the boards, contributing nine points.
Cougars, still without several experienced players, improved significantly in the second quarter but this was hindered with Andrew Fitzgerald forced out through injury, having contributed 10 point before his enforced departure.
Still, the improvement continued with Tommy Bowler, Jaime Fernandez and Justin Tuason all contributing but the home side had a good lead 41-26 at half-time.
The third quarter was basket for basket with Carlow holding onto their lead 57-41 but the Killarney side made a big impact on the game in the final quarter thanks to Jaime Fernandez, Jack Lynch, Mark O’Shea and Justin Tuason. Time ran out, however, as the home side secured the win with American American Shafer really impressing.
Cougars continue to line-out without several of the experienced members of the panel but did welcome back Conor Flynn after a six-week absence and, with this week’s busy schedule, they will have to continue to rely on the under 20 members of the panel.
Advance tickets for the two home games are available online through Eventbrite and a limited number of tickets will also be available at the door.
