Hungry Panthers maul the Cougars on return to National League action

Killarney Cougars 66 

ND Audit Portlaoise Panthers 105 

ND Audit Portlaoise Panthers head coach, Jack Scully was pleased to see his players make a return to winning ways when they made the long trip to Killarney Cougars for their latest stop in Men’s Division One competition on Saturday night.

With their game against Carrick Cruisers postponed the previous weekend, the North Conference leaders had to wait two weeks for the chance to get their President’s National Cup final loss to Limerick Celtics out of their system.

And it was Killarney who were on the receiving end of that unbridled desire by Portlaoise to get back on track as they extended their unbeaten National League run to 13 games.

Just as the Portlaoise Panthers women had done against University of Galway Mystics earlier in the day, every one of the Portlaoise men got on the scoresheet in Presentation Gym, Eric Anderson spearheading their charge with a return of 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

James Phelan and Davin McEvoy also hit double figures for the visitors as they served up a combined 33 to help counter the game-high 27 points that Joshua Strongman put up for Killarney on the night.

“We’re just delighted to get back out and get another league win under our belt,” Portlaoise boss, Jack Scully told the *****Laois Nationalist*****.

“It’s been two weeks since the National Cup, and with last weekend’s game (against Carrick Cruisers) being called off, it’s been a long two weeks. We’re just glad we got a performance and got 11 players in there with loads of minutes,” he added.

Portlaoise’s Xabi Arriaga opened the scoring on Saturday with a big three just 14 seconds into proceedings, and, while three swift buckets from Strongman had Killarney a point up with just under two minutes played, was it to prove the last time they would find themselves in front in this game.

Indeed, Panthers began to flex their muscles with a seven-point run that included a three from Anderson and a deuce Liam Kinsella before the visitors later hit eight unanswered points, Phelan accounting for half of those when he drained four from the free-throw line.

That went some way to seeing Portlaoise take a 25-16 lead into the second quarter, during which they added a further 14 points to their advantage.

Anderson really began to turn the screw in that period with 10 points, while Dylan Dunne, Cillian O’Connell, Aleksandar Kovacevic and McEvoy all drained big scores from downtown to help the visitors open up a 23-point gap (58-35) by the half-time break.

Killarney had to work tirelessly in an effort not to sustain any further damage after the interval, and while they managed to reduce their arrears to 14 midway through the third quarter, Portlaoise began to motor again, stringing together a 10-point run that helped increase their lead to 35 points (89-54) heading into the fourth.

Phelan put up 12 points in that penultimate quarter, while McEvoy and Anderson combined for a further 14 as the visitors effectively snuffed out any prospect of a comeback by their opponents.

And still they refused to take their foot off the pedal down the stretch, adding four points to their already weighty cushion as Kevin Donohoe put up six and Kyle Burke and Kinsella also punished on the inside.

“It was nice to get back to league action after the stress of the cup campaign over the last month,” remarked Scully, whose side will get the opportunity to exact some measure of revenge on their President’s National Cup nemesis, Limerick Celtics when they make the trip to Crescent College to take on the runaway South Conference leaders next Saturday.

KILLARNEY COUGARS: Lucas Cronin, Iyan Hristov, Nathan Cox, Jack Lynch, Bill Wiseman, Joshua Strongman, Aaron Buckley, Evan Cox, Andrew Fitzgerald, Benjamin Todd, Adam Lenihan.

Top Scorers: Joshua Strongman (27), Benjamin Todd (13), Adam Lenihan (8).

ND AUDIT PORTLAOISE PANTHERS: Cillian O’Connell, Dylan Dunne, James Phelan, Eric Anderson, Davin McEvoy, Kevin Donohoe, Gary Morrissey, Xabi Arriaga, Kyle Burke, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Liam Kinsella.

Top Scorers: Eric Anderson (21), James Phelan (17), Davin McEvoy (16), Dylan Dunne (8), Kevin Donohoe (8), Xabi Arriaga (8), Liam Kinsella (8).