NATIONAL League veteran Jerome Westbrooks is the man likely to step into the second American role vacated by the injured Scott Sytulek when St Vincent's attempt to keep their slim title hopes alive in a Budweiser super league fixture against relegation threatened North Monastery tomorrow in Cork.
Two seasons ago Westbrooks won both a league and a cup medal for the Glasnevin club and he is regarded as the ideal man to step in to fill such a role at short notice.
Club chairman and squad member Pat Boylan admitted that they had difficulty in finding an adequate replacement for Sytulek in America so they immediately turned to free agent Westbrooks who trained successfully with the team on Wednesday evening.
Sytulek has a bad ankle ligament injury which required his lower leg to be placed in a cast after he retired just three minutes into the league game against Killester last weekend. St Vincent's went on to win a stirring game 98-96 with a basket from Rob Phelps right on the final buzzer.
In tandem with Phelps, Sytulek forms one of the most potent American partnerships in the league and the club are hoping for good news when the hard cast is removed next Monday. He is certainly out for at least two games but a priority is for him to regain fitness in time for the Top Four in mid March.
The destination of the league title is now firmly in the hands of Tralee who can afford to lose one and probably even two of their last four games and still win the trophy. On recent form they should get the better of Killester tomorrow, although player for player the Dublin club match up well to the Kerry side.
Barring a total collapse by Tralee, Star of the Sea are the only team with any hope of winning the title, but their recent form of three consecutive defeats is poor preparation for a visit to the reigning champions Neptune on Sunday.
The Corkmen will be mindful of the manner in which they lost the cup semi final to Star of the Sea last month despite leading by three points with 30 seconds remaining.
The relegation duel involving Ballina and North Monastery continues to fascinate with the Mavo club's revival since their cup win giving them real hope of avoiding the drop. They need to win two more league games than the Corkmen in the final tour rounds to survive and they take a tour match winning sequence into their home match with Delta tomorrow.
