Burnett desire to help Lions roar
DUBLIN Lions’ new American recruit Zach Burnett remained positive despite the Clondalkin side suffering an agonising 76-75 point loss away to St Paul’s Killarney in their opening game of the new Men’s Division One season.
Burnett, who only flew in that day, still lined out for the Lions and emerged the game’s top scorer on 26 points.
But, in what was a thrilling close to the tie, it was St Paul’s who emerged winners by the narrowest of margins, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Justin Tuascon who netted 21 points.
Still, Burnett was upbeat about the Clondalkin team’s performance which also featured a 26-point haul between Igor Markiewicz and Hillary Natsiyanwa.
“This is a pretty young team, and just to show them that we can compete is good” Burnett told The Echo. “This is something we can definitely build on. We made a good start. Over the first ten minutes they were man-to-man and we were killing them.
“But in the second quarter they switched to zone and they outscored us 18-4 and got back into it.
“At halftime we were six points down, but we worked our way back in the second half and got back in front with about five minutes to go. It was back and forth after that we just lost out by a point” he said.
The Lions are back on the road this weekend as they travel north to take on Ulster University Elks on Sunday.
While they did beat Ulster in a pre-season match, their opponents were missing a few players and the Lions will certainly be expecting a much tougher challenge this time around.
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