Neptune rally late to retain four-point lead over Star

Neptune survived the most serious test yet to their leadership of the ESB Superleague when they overcame the challenge of title holders Star of the Sea by just two points in their visit Andersontown on Saturday.

It was a highly satisfying result for coach Gerry Fitzpatrick, most significantly as Star seemed to on their way to a second win in 48 hours. It took another superb display from Rasuel McKune to ensure the 67-65 victory and keep them with a four-point lead over second-placed Star, who still have a game in hand.

With a slight advantage at the half, 32-31, Star were very much displaying the form that saw them overcome Killester on Friday night. Gareth McGuire and John Leahy were combining for their consistent scoring, but McKune, Stephen McCarthy and Ricardo Leonard slowly closed up the host's sights of joint leadership with the better final quarter.

Elsewhere, Denny Notre Dame were moved down to third on the table after a one point loss to Esat Telecom Demons yesterday. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the Demons took an early lead and never looked back with an excellent scoring display from Jamie Esbeck and Joe McKenny. Anthony Jenkins did his best to inspire the late charge, but they eventually lost out 94-93.

St Vincent's also completed a winning double-header weekend with their 88-75 win over Burger King Limerick. Despite trailing by a point after a very tight first half, David Donnelly spearheaded a superb finish for the Dublin club as he ended up with 24 points in total.

Rock Winston and Mick Norris also gave great displays for Limerick, but Vincent's had too much depth with the likes of Brian Tonkovich also amongst the top scorers. Their 89-78 victory over Dungannon on Saturday means that they jump to joint fourth on the table - their highest placing so far this season.

Also moving up the table are Tolka Rovers, who recorded only their fourth win of their campaign yesterday and did so in most impressive fashion over the more-fancied Dungannon. They jumped to a 53-31 lead by midway and despite reducing that deficit somewhat, Dungannon were well beaten 96-74. Greg Haffner and Randell Mounts were top scorers for Tolka with 20 and 19 points respectively, and this moves them off the final two positions.

No such form-reversal for Sligo Dairies, however, who were handed a 123-87 defeat on their visit to Kerry Spring Killarney and remain rooted at the bottom. And that was almost as bad as UCD Marian, who simply couldn't get things going against Killester and went down 121-88 in a game that saw David Shoultz score an incredible 45 points.

In the women's Superleague, no great surprise that Tolka Rovers kept the number one spot with a 77-51 win at the University of Limerick. Rachel Kelly was top scorer there with 20 points.

But champions Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats, desperate to keep within reach of Tolka, were extremely fortunate to come away with the 46-45 victory over Killester and remain four points behind the winners at the half-way point of the season.