Notre Dame's lofty ambitions to sweep all three major trophies have been dealt a near mortal blow by the injury received to their highly influential player-coach Anthony Jenkins who will miss the rest of the season with a ruptured achilles tendon. Without Jenkins, Notre Dame failed to raise their game out of the mediocrity that it had slipped into before Christmas and they suffered their second consecutive league defeat on Saturday night in bizarre circumstances.
Even before the game against Killester, the omens were bad for Notre Dame as their American Randall Mounts brought down a basket in the warm-up at the National Arena. That resulted in the game being switched to one of the practice cross courts and the general pall of gloom that hangs over the club at present was evident as Notre Dame lost 85-78 to Killester, in spite of 37 points from Mounts.
Jenkins, who suffered the injury playing in the Castleisland Christmas blitz, is likely to stay on as coach to the team but his presence on court is almost impossible to replace.
At 35 years of age, the injury is a cruel reminder of the fate he suffered over ten years ago when he ruptured his other achilles tendon just as he was about to be drafted into the NBA.
The only good news for the American and the club is that the operation on the tendon was a complete success and the injury should not threaten his career if all goes well in the next six months.
As yet, Notre Dame have not moved to seek a replacement for Jenkins but they will do so in the coming week.
As a result of that defeat, Star of the Sea took their opportunity to go clear on top of the league table by defeating a depleted St Vincent's 9062 in Glasnevin yesterday.
Notre Dame are not the only club to be stuck in a run of bad luck as reigning champions Neptune, currently bottom of the table, lost a one point lead with four seconds to go against Marian in Cork on Saturday night while they also lost Ger Heaphy with a bad ankle injury with six minutes remaining.
Marian won the game 75-74 with two free throws from player-coach Matt Boyle with those four seconds left on the clock after he had been fouled by Cuban Augusto Duquesne. Ballina were in rampant form in a 130-97 home win over Tralee in which three players, Joseph McLean (39 pts), Chris Doyal (38 pts) and John Quigley (32 pts) tallied a remarkable 109 points between them. Roscoe Patterson scored a game high of 48 for the Kerry club.
The scheduled league game in Dungannon between the Tyrone club and Killarney had to be postponed because of the political tension in the area. In the womens' superleague, Wildcats took a major step towards their fourth league title in a row by defeating their main pursuers Naomh Mhuire 67-56 in Sandyford on Saturday night.
Mhuire struggled to stay on terms with the Waterford women for much of the first half and at half time Wildcats led 36-29. However, the Dublin club played with far more urgency after the break spurred on by the superb Edel O'Gorman who scored two quick baskets in a run of eight consecutive points.
That put Mhuire ahead 37-36 and for the duration of the third quarter, the lead changed hands on numerous occasions with rarely more than a basket between the teams.
However, Wildcats' strength in depth left them with fresher legs in the crucial final ten minutes and in particular, the well rested Jillian Hayes was the most influential player in the closing stages as she and her team-mates gradually took control to win by eleven points and preserve the only 100 per cent record in any of the national leagues.
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