Ballincollig basketballers on a roll as Neptune look to reboot under new coach

Ballincollig will be hoping to keep their recent winning run going in the Domino’s Men’s Super League when they entertain Tralee Warriors on Friday night at the MTU Arena (8.15pm).

The Cork side are presently playing some wonderful basketball and if they remain focused on the job in hand, there is no reason why they cannot see off the Warriors' challenge.

A lot of credit must go player-coach Ciaran O’Sullivan in the manner he has assembled this crack squad for this campaign.

In defence, they are hard to break down, but any decent coach will always insist that everything starts in the manner you are set up in defending your basket.

In their latest win over Eanna they managed to restrict their ace shooters Sean Jenkins (11), Stefan Desinica (2) and Kristijan Andabaka (10) to a mere 23 points between them.

SHARED

In the offence, Ballincollig share the ball at pace and looking at the recruitment of their professionals, coach O’Sullivan has nailed it.

Lataviouos Mitchell plays the post with power and his ability to score and defend makes him one of the best professionals in the league.

Fellow countryman Lattrell Jossell is a razor-sharp guard who can score but his ability to dish out assists has brought a new dimension to this Ballincollig side.

In previous years, Ballincollig chose to go with big Bosman players that failed to produce the goods. Instead, O’Sullivan opted to sign English-born Josh Steel, who is a good scorer and is right in the mix when it comes to shutting down opponents.

In fairness, Ballincollig didn’t start the season in the manner they would have liked and lost their opening two games to Limerick Celtics and St Vincent’s.

Credit to them, they have really turned their season around and their win at Killester showed they have the artillery on the road to bring down quality sides.

Tonight they face a Tralee Warriors side who have been decimated this season with the loss of Rap Buivydas to Belfast Star and Ryan Leonard, who moved to UL Limerick.

Coach John Dowling does not have the same firepower and against quality teams in this campaign, they have failed to get results.

The one plus for the Warriors is they have two quality Americans in Irshaad Hunte and Jordan Perkins. And with Bosman Daniel Jokubaitis, who is hugely experienced, they will still be a real test.

Eoin Quigley is an experienced campaigner too but if Ballincollig's Irish brigade of Adrian O’Sullivan, Dylan Corkery, Kealan Cairns and Ronan O’Sullivan rise to the challenge, there will only be one winner from this intriguing game.

Energywise Ireland Neptune are back on home territory again tomorrow when they welcome Killester at the Neptune Stadium (6.30pm).

In the last couple of games, Killester have missed the influence of Paul Dick and Ciaran Roe and it will be interesting to see if they will make it back for this clash.

TOUGH TASK

It will be a debut game for Neptune’s new coach Ciaran Kiveney and he should be under no illusions of the task that’s in front of him.

Neptune played well enough in the first half against Tralee Warriors in their cup defeat but a poor third quarter came back to haunt them.

Americans Ryan Glover (25) and Rotarius Ware (19) did relatively well. Whether coach Kiveney thinks they are good enough to keep his side in the top tier of Irish basketball will be interesting.

Bosman Gregario Adon had a mere two points in 34 minutes against his former club Tralee Warriors and that tally is not good enough by a long shot.

The absence of Cian Heaphy is Neptune’s biggest problems, as the majority of their Irish players are struggling to make an impression in this level of basketball.

Killester without Roe and Dick are vulnerable and it will be interesting to see how the Neptune players perform in front of their new coach.