Star of the Sea are just three matches away from retaining the ESB Superleague title after winning in Killarney on Saturday night while their nearest challengers Waterford slipped to a second consecutive defeat
Waterford's loss to Marian for the second time this season was the shock result of the weekend. The Dublin club had lost six of their eight matches in 1999 before travelling south on Saturday for a game they needed to win to keep alive their diminishing hopes of qualifying for the end-of-season National Championship.
The addition of Harold Joiner to the Marian squad certainly helped lift their performance and the former Neptune American was an inspiration, taking 30 rebounds while scoring 18 points.
Marian took an early lead and kept up the intensity of their performance right the way through. By the end of the first quarter they were clearly ahead, 23-13, and they never relinquished their healthy advantage from there on.
At half-time they were 46-33 in front and with Patrick Glover controlling the back court and Americans Kevin Ellery and Joiner in fine form, Marian cruised to an unexpectedly easy win.
Waterford's challenge suffered from an over-dependence on an out-of-form Roscoe Patterson who hit only four out of 22 field goal attempts.
Meanwhile, in Killarney, Star came back from an early 11-4 deficit to lead 21-15 after the first quarter and 39-34 at the interval.
The early exchanges of the third quarter effectively determined the pattern of the second half as Star went 47-36 ahead within two minutes of the restart. From then on, they were rarely in danger of losing their advantage and even survived a dazzling 16 points in 10 minutes after the break from Killarney's Robbie Turner.
Adrian Fulton had a superb game in the back court for Star while Javan Dupree continued to impress on his return from retirement by scoring 17 points.
The combination of Star's victory and Waterford's defeat now means that if Star win their last three matches, then none of their pursuers can prevent them from winning the league for the second year in a row.
Three victories would leave Star on 68 points - a total that Waterford could match but not exceed. In the event of a tie between the two, then Star would be crowned champions as they have beaten their southern rivals on the two occasions they have met in the course of the league campaign.
Only in the event of a complete collapse by the top two would third placed St Vincent's have a chance and even then the Dublin side would have to win their remaining matches.
The Glasnevin men, though, have the best league record of any team in the second half of the campaign and maintained their fine 1999 record with a 94-88 win in Dungannon on Saturday.
While St Vincent's dominated for most of the game, they let a 17-point lead slip to just six in the space of just three minutes before the final buzzer.
Any slight hopes that Blue Demons had of winning the title evaporated yesterday as they lost 89-88 in Limerick. The Cork side led 26-17 after the first quarter and 42-38 at half time but it was close right through the second half and inside the final minute, Limerick went 87-85 ahead.
Duval Simmonds levelled the game with 30 seconds remaining but then Matt Rooney got the free throw which won the game for the home side.
Easily the highest scoring duel over the weekend was NotreDame's 113-92 victory over Sligo in which Calvin Morris scored 35 for the three-in-a-row cup-winners. Neptune may yet regret releasing Harold Joiner during the week as the Cork club suffered a 73-59 drubbing by struggling Dublin Bay Vikings for whom veteran Ed Randolph was outstanding for the second week in a row, scoring a match-winning 30 points.
Meanwhile in Ennistymon, Ballina took a major step towards returning to superleague action next season by beating Tralee 8772 in the Division One regional league final.
