Belfast Star’s head coach Sean Ingle is backing his men to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss and do all they can to make the All Ireland Super League playoffs when they face Killester in the final game of the regular season on Saturday night at Newforge.

A rollercoaster of a season took another twist last Saturday night when Star lost a double-overtime epic encounter at home to Sligo, 122-115. Victory would have sealed their place in the end-of-season championship play-offs but now they must defeat Killester to have any hope of making the top eight.

Star were left gutted by the loss as they had opportunities to take the victory but in a game of fine margins and great intensity, they just came up short. 

Coach Ingle commented: “It’s a missed opportunity. We had them on the ropes but they came back so credit to them and Robert Montgomery was excellent for them with 40 points and Jonathan Brown (21pts) in the second half was clinical.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed. At the end of regulation time, we had the ball and didn’t execute and in the first period of overtime we didn’t execute and we turned the ball over and that’s on us, it’s on me. I feel that I didn’t do a good enough job our getting the right guy in the right position to execute. 

“The first half, I thought we were very good and got a lead but we let them back in and that’s something that we had a problem with all season – not having that mentality to push the foot on the throat and keep going. Obviously, Sligo are an excellent team but I thought we could have put the game to bed in the first half in the same way we did against Maree last week.

“It's a tough one to take and now we are up against it to make the playoffs. We need other results to go our way and we have to beat Killester. It’s do or die and we have to pick ourselves up and focus on beating Killester. That’s going to be very tough but I’d back us against anyone in our home arena.”

Before a packed crowd at Newforge, Star started with a blitz of three-pointers, which included a hat-trick from captain Conor that pushed them into a 19-12 lead. But Sligo fought back with the game’s top scorer Robert Montgomery (40pts) and John Carroll making sure Star only led 28-26.

The second quarter had a similar pattern when a dunk from Star’s top scorer Max Cooper (30pts) gave them a 46-37 lead with 90 seconds remaining. But again, Montgomery hurt the Belfast side with seven points to leave Star only leading 48-44 at half-time.

There was very little between the sides in the third quarter, but with 20 seconds remaining American Dre Jackson (27pts) nudged Star into a three-point lead only for Sligo’s Tom Child to tie the game at 70-70 just before the buzzer.

Star were under the cosh with two minutes remaining of regular time when Carroll and Brown hit three-pointers.

Brown slotted home another basket to give Sligo a 92-90 lead with just 25 seconds remaining but a tough play by Max Richardson allowed him to tie the game at 92-92, sending the exhilarating battle into overtime.

Again Star found themselves trailing late in the first period of overtime but Darweshi Hunter (24pts) came up with a huge three-pointer to give them a 101-100 lead with less than a minute remaining.

It seemed the tide had turned their way when Cooper showed his tenacity to make a tough basket but then Brown produced a three to send the game into a second period of overtime.

Trailing by two points a controversial offensive foul was called on Conor Quinn and that led to Tom Child hitting a crucial three to give Sligo a five-point lead with just over a minute and a half remaining and they never allowed Star back into the game.