Reigning champions Star of the Sea missed the opportunity to go top of the ESB Superleague by suffering a shock 89-85 defeat in Limerick yesterday.
Star's exertions in beating Notre Dame in a very close game on Saturday night at the National Arena became evident in the closing stages yesterday when they could not muster one of their trademark late surges to deprive Limerick of the most famous victory in the club's history.
The star of the Limerick performance was their American Reggie Scott who top-scored in the game with 31.
One of the features of the league campaign so far has been the double duty weekends which every team will have to cope with. At least Star came away from their 500-mile round trip weekend with the full quota of points from a 7875 success over their close rivals from last season's campaign, Notre Dame.
Ryan Howse had an outstanding inside game for Star, scoring 31 points, but the difference between the teams was a controversial score awarded by referee Paul Rice.
Deep into the last quarter, Star's Scotty Summersgill sent up a three-point attempt which appeared to be falling short and was caught by Notre Dame's Calvin Morris. Rice called a basket violation on Morris and awarded the three points to Star who won in the end by that exact margin.
Another team with two matches over the weekend were the 1997 champions Neptune who yesterday bounced back from their 8582 defeat by Blue Demons on Friday night to beat Killarney 8075 with the re-signed Harold Joiner top-scoring for the Cork side with 21 points.
In a close game, Killarney narrowly failed to complete their own busy weekend with a full haul of points having defeated Sligo in Kerry on Saturday evening, 93-85.
St Vincent's were another team to win one and lose one over the weekend as they came back off a 76-50 hammering by Notre Dame on Friday to beat Vikings 71-61 yesterday.
Waterford preserved their lead and their unbeaten record at the top with another exemplary display as they dismantled Tolka Rovers by 97 points to 68 . Killester are emerging as the strongest Dublin team in pursuit of Waterford after defeating Dublin Bay Vikings 72-68 on Saturday in Clontarf. The closest game of the weekend was undoubtedly the duel in Tyrone where Dungannon came from two points behind to beat UCD Marian 79-78 with a three-pointer from American Alcinder Boller with only two seconds to go. In the ESB women's league, the leaders Wildcats maintained their 13-month long unbeaten run in national competition by dominating the third quarter of the game on their way to defeating Tolka Rovers 88-64 in Waterford on Saturday.
