Drogheda Wolves 108
Killarney Lakers 84
Enda Walshe reports
Scott’s Lakers made the trip to the Ballymakenny Gym to face the Drogheda Wolves and while defeat was their lot, there were a few extenuating circumstances behind it.
They faced a side beaten only once at home all season with a squad shorn of the presence of Ronan Collins, Mark O’Shea, Jack O’Sullivan and Paul Clarke but those present played with spirit and no little skill and made the home side play honest right to the end.
Jack Ferguson, who holds the highest game total for the season in the league, 49 points, repeated the dose against the much-vaunted Wolves’ defence, the third meanest in the league. Alongside Captain Rui Saravia he played the entire 40 minutes with the remaining squad members rotating the remaining minutes between them.
In the final analysis, the Lakers must have felt like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke given the amount of gaps they had to plug. Tiago Pereira, Lemmie Howard and Stephen Safo all had 20 plus points while Denzel Ebose wasn’t far off the mark.
Eoin Carroll made his first league start alongside the aforementioned Saravia, Ferguson, Marko Bencic and Jamie O’Sullivan and Lakers edged into a 25-24 first quarter lead.
Ferguson, O’Leary and Saravia kept the momentum swinging the Lakers’ way early in the second quarter running up a 33-27 advantage. The pace of the game was bound to have an effect on a depleted Lakers squad and Eboze, Howard and Pereira sniffed blood to roar 37-33 clear and they had increased that to 56-41 by half-time.
The Wolves, now pushing home their superiority, hit the opening seven points of the third quarter through Howard and Pereira but Ferguson and Senan O’Leary, enjoying his best outing of the season, kept tipping away. The advantage increased to 73-50 but credit where it’s due Saravia, O’Leary and Ferguson kept the flag flying and held their own to see the game at 79-57 going into the final quarter.
The hot hand of Ferguson showed no sign of cooling as he hit two fast threes but Esajobar responded as Oisin Spring was now on the floor for the visitors. The gap was now down to 14, 82-68, with O Leary still prominent but everything the Lakers tried to make an impression, their hand was seen and raised by Drogheda.
And try they did, a Jamie O’Sullivan three pointer made it 90-77 with just under five to go. But, understandably, the night’s efforts caught up on them as a bigger and fresher Wolves squad made use of their advantages. Pereira, Safo and Howard hit 10 on the spin, a run eventually ended by Oisin Spring. But Eboze and Safo showed no signs of mercy to help the Wolves run out 109-84 victors. They deservedly carried the points but the performance of Jack Ferguson carried a lot of the plaudits.
Outside of Ferguson’s 49 points, Senan O’Leary struck 14, Jamie O Sullivan has eight, Rui Saravia managed six Eoin Carroll hit three and both Oisin Spring and Marko Bencic hadtwo.
For the Drogheda Wolves their scoring spread was headed by Victor Pereira and Stephen Safo with 27 each, Lemmie Howard had 22 while Denzel Eboze netted 16.
* Killarney Cougars, meanwhile, suffered another defeat on Saturday night, this time falling to Dublin Lions on a 104-79 scoreline, having trailed 40-52 at half-time.
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