Belfast Star captain Conor Quinn believes a break from action this weekend will give them the time to bounce back in style following their exit from the National Cup.
Star were left devastated after losing 103-89 in overtime away to Eanna last weekend, meaning their yearning for a first Cup success continues for another year. Star must now focus on the All Ireland Super League and on Saturday week at Newforge they will be facing Eanna followed by a home game at De La Salle College less than 24 hours later against Templeogue.
Captain Quinn is hoping his men can show their character and use the next two weeks to gel even more ahead of the doubleheader.
“We have to pick ourselves up and go again. It was a tough loss to take but Eanna deserved the win because they made their big shots and we didn’t,” said Quinn, who along with Max Richardson fouled out in the fourth quarter of the defeat to Eanna.
“It’s been a tough start to the season but we have two weeks now to really work hard and get ourselves for the doubleheader which can give us some momentum.
“Eanna are a very talented bunch of guys and they probably played with a higher intensity than us from the start. It didn’t help that Max and I fouled out and our bench only had nine players to start with because Liam Pettigrew has a broken bone in his face and we had a few players away. But, we’re not going to make excuses because Eanna were also under-manned and they still fought very hard and when they were tired they made their shots.
“We have to learn from this and understand what we have to do to make sure that we can get back to our best.”
On Saturday night, Star started very positively and despite only having nine on their bench they were on top by the end of the first quarter.
Conor Ryan hit a three-pointer to open up a seven-point advantage with two minutes remaining and by the end of the first quarter, Star led 24-19.
Max Cooper came up with a couple of baskets at the start of the second quarter to keep Star in control of the game and Oisin Kerlin came off the bench to produce some impressive work in defence.
American Maurice Jones, one of Star’s best performers on the night, came up with two big threes to push them into a 38-25 lead with six minutes remaining in the quarter.
Eanna were struggling to match Star’s scoring prowess and Conor’s twin brother Aidan had a superb steal before drawing the foul and nailing two free throws to help his side lead 48-39 at the break.
It seemed that Star had set the foundation for a big win on the road but then their offence dried up and Eanna took advantage.
Within 90 seconds, the lead was down to three and halfway through the quarter the Belfast men were trailing.
Down 63-58 going into the fourth quarter, Jones and Aidan Quinn came up with three-pointers to give them some momentum and for the remaining six minutes of normal time, there was never more than three points between the sides.
With only seven seconds remaining Star were down 81-78 when Jones came up with a game-saving three. A great block by Kerlin with a second on the clock made sure Star’s Cup hopes stayed alive.
But in the five minutes of overtime, Star made too many sloppy errors and Eanna made their baskets to ease into the last eight.
