Davin McEvoy and his Portlaoise Panthers team mates are bracing themselves for a tough challenge when they face off against Titans BC in, what will be, their first ever appearance in the President’s National Cup semi-finals this Saturday night in Parochial Hall.
While Jack Scully’s men did storm to a 31-point victory over their Galway rivals when they last met in Division One action in St Mary’s Hall back in November, McEvoy insists they can expect a more severe test this time around.
Indeed, with eight wins from 11 outings, Titans are making a serious push for the runners-up spot in the South Conference and will be eager to exact revenge on Portlaoise for ending their six-game winning run at the time of their last encounter.
And boasting top-calibre players, the likes of Michael Hayes who, only last weekend served up a massive 43 points and 29 rebounds away to Ulster University, Titans could prove a serious threat to Panthers’ unbeaten run so far this season.
“For us, I don’t think we’ll be getting complacent at all, because it’s a cup semi-final and it’s our first time in it, so we see ourselves as underdogs, having never been there before” McEvoy told LaoisToday.
“We know we can’t take Titans lightly. They still have a very positive record in the league with eight wins, so they’re certainly a team that we can’t overlook.
“I suppose there are nerves, but there’s a lot of excitement too. We just need to keep doing what we know is working for us and not try and change things up too much.
“They’ll have looked at us from the last game and they’ll have ways to try and stop us, but if we trust in the way that we’re playing, don’t let our standards drop and keep our work-rate up, I feel we should hopefully be looking forward to a cup final” he said.
While it may be their first ever appearance in the last four of the Men’s National Cup, Portlaoise are certainly the in-form team.
Both they and Limerick Celtics are the only two remaining unbeaten sides in Division One so far this season, with last weekend’s thrilling 90-89 victory away to Limerick Sport Eagles taking Panthers’ league record to 12 and 0 and keeping them nine points clear at the top of the North Conference.
For McEvoy, who also plays football for Ballyroan-Abbey, that remarkable run is rooted firmly in the depth of the squad that head coach, Jack Scully has put together this season.
The arrival of American power forward, Eric Anderson last summer has had a huge impact, as have the likes of Xabi Arriaga and Kevin Donohoe, who made the move to Panthers from SETU Carlow in the off-season.
The return of James Phelan to the Portlaoise set-up last year has proven a massive plus for the team, while Sebian guard, Aleksandar Kovacevic is another of the new recruits who have made their presence felt for the North Conference leaders.
“The depth that we have in the panel is something that we didn’t have before” remarked McEvoy, who himself has been playing with the club since U-11 and is now in his fourth season with the seniors.
“Before, we probably would have had about eight strong players, whereas all 12 are now capable of making an impact for the team this year.
“In previous years, if one or two players were having a bad game it would have really cost us, but now we have players who can fill in those gaps at all times.
“We always have fresh legs on the court. There’s no one being tasked with playing the full game at all this year and that really helps when you get to the late stages in games where we’re not finding ourselves running out of steam” he said.
Still the 21-year-old shooting guard has stressed the importance of he and his team mates learning from the mistakes of last season when it comes to these big games.
While they enjoyed a very impressive run in the regular 2023/24 league season, Portlaoise came up short when it came to the business end of the campaign, losing out to Limerick Sport Eagles in the play-off quarter finals, after having also suffered a first-round exit from the National Cup at the hands of eventual winners, UCD Marian.
“Our main learnings this year is to not let our standards dip, just keep pushing on and going for more.
“When it comes to the knock-out stage at the end of the year, the record will mean nothing if we can’t produce the goods then, so we’re just trying to learn from last season and make sure we don’t peak too early, or let our standards drop just because we’re winning” he insisted.
Portlaoise Panthers face Titans BC in Parochial Hall in Cork on Saturday at 8.30pm.
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