Star Of The Sea's thorough dismissal of UCD Marian's challenge at Maysfield yesterday not only avenged an early season defeat by the Dubliners but also sent the Belfast side into a clear lead on top of the ESB Superleague table for the first time in over a month.
The 96-81 margin barely revealed how thoroughly dominant Star of the Sea were and the performance demonstrated how far they have come since losing to Marian last October in Dublin.
Star led by 20 points at halftime (50-30), and could afford to rest their entire first five for the whole of the last quarter. After enduring a period of fragile form in the early part of the season which followed the retirements of Javan Dupree and coach Danny Fulton, Star are now rounding into their best form just three weeks away from the cup. As things stand, the league title race has begun to take the shape of a two-way contest with Waterford offering the only consistent threat to Star after both Killester and Neptune suffered bad defeats over the weekend against opponents from the lower half of the table.
Killester have dropped four points off the pace by losing in Killarney, where the home team had to come from behind to win 72-70 on Saturday night. Killester led after the first quarter but had slipped 41-33 behind by half-time only to rally strongly in the second half. With just seven minutes remaining, the Dubliners had gone 62-55 ahead but a threepointer from Robbie Turner and four free-throws from Brian Clarke helped level the game at 70-all with 90 seconds remaining. In the last 16 seconds, free throws from Turner and Clarke edged Killarney into a 72-70 lead which they held to the buzzer.
After scoring 31 points on his debut last week against Waterford, Turner was again the dominant player in the game with 30 points.
Like Killester, Neptune also lost narrowly, 90-87, to Dungannon for whom former Killarney American Jamal Chretien scored a game-high of 30 points.
The Cork club led 45-42 at halftime in a match which was close throughout with never more than six points between the teams. Dungannon's outstanding Irish playmaker, Trevor Smullen, was again high among the scorers with 23.
Blue Demons look to be a real threat to Star in the Cup semifinal in just over a fortnight, and they also moved into third place in the league table following an easy 107-70 win over bottom-of-the-table Tolka Rovers.
Meanwhile, the formality of securing a fifth women's league title success in a row is likely to be completed by Wildcats even before the cup play-offs after they easily defeated Killester 97-67 on Saturday night in Waterford.
Details in Sports Round-Up
