Head coach Sean Ingle placed the blame on himself following Belfast Star’s dramatic double-overtime 122-115 defeat at home to Sligo in the sides’ Domino’s All-Ireland Super League encounter on Saturday night.
Victory for Star would have secured their place in the end-of-season Play-Offs, but now their hopes are hanging by a thread as they prepare for the final game of the regular season on Saturday night at home to Killester, who are second in the Super League.
The Belfast side had their opportunities to grab the win in Newforge but in regular time failed to convert their final possession with seven seconds remaining, and at the end of the first period of overtime, they also missed an opportunity to take the points.
Ingle commented: “Obviously, I’m very disappointed with the result.
“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, to be honest.
“I feel that I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the right guy in the right position.
“It’s a tough one to take, and now we are up against it to make the Play-Offs. 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.”
In a game of fine margins, Star will look back at the first quarter and wonder why they were not leading by more than two points.
A hat-trick of three-pointers from captain Conor Quinn 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.
Down by two with 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Max Richardson tied the game at 92-92. Once more, Star found themselves trailing late in the first period of overtime, but Darweshi Hunter 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.