TOO SHORT? Too small?How about two wins away from booking Premier League basketball’s first play-off berth?Written off during the pre-season by most, the league leading Lumber Company Lakers are beginning to make believers of all after failing to lose a single game in their first ten tries while holding a half-game lead atop the standings.And they enter tomorrow’s final first-round contest against British American Insurance Jackson knowing that victory over the fifth-placed squad reduces their magic number to one.It will also take two wins before the league leaders face a fellow Premier League side in the knockout tournament as well, after the draw for the competition was released last week with Lakers slated to open against Intermediate club Combined Faith.The unbeaten Husbands men will have to wait until the quarter-finals for a potential match-up with Nicholls Baking Cougars in the top half of the draw and could go all the way to the finals before playing a top four Premier League team.Such is the luck of the draw that has left all but one of the 12 top flight clubs without one of the four first-round byes, resulting in an opening match-up between rivalling Premier League sides Colombian Emeralds International Senators and Patriots.And the draw doesn’t get any kinder for the winner of that contest, with Jackson probably awaiting them in the round of 16 following their game against Second Division club Church Village Spartans.Reigning Premier League double-crowned champs Mpact Station Hill Cavs begin their title defence in the bottom half of the draw against Intermediate squad Police, and shouldn’t face any serious competition until a potential quarter-final showdown with last-year’s losing league finalists Pinelands.The Pine are slated to open against Third Division side Edge Cliff Spikes, while top flight colleagues and fellow play-off hopefuls First Works Warriors take on Intermediate team Mayhill.Five-time Premier League champs Act II Popcorn Clapham Bulls have the Premier League’s lone bye at the bottom of the knockout draw.
