Neptune's title challenge boost

It was a significant weekend on two counts for Neptune and their reign as ESB Superleague leaders. Firstly, the 99-74 victory over the Clare Jets on Saturday maintains their lead; and secondly, the double defeat of second-placed Star of the Sea has extended it to six points.

Neptune travelled to Clare for their last game before a three-week Christmas break, and ensured from the start that they left in a winning mood. They lead by five points at the half, 44-39, and despite some excellent scoring from Clare's Michael Ayanbadjejo (26 points) and Anthony Pieper (20 points), there was little they could do to halt Neptune's 25 point winning margin.

Once again it was Rasuel McKune who was top scorer on 22 points, followed by Stephen McCarthy (18) and Ricardo Leonard (13). Coach Gerry Fitzpatrick maintains that his side take each encounter as it comes, and with just two losses from 14 games, that is a strategy that seems to be working. There was some consolation yesterday for Clare with their 94-86 win over the Esat Telecom Demons.

What happened to Star over the weekend is harder to assess. The title holders were sent crashing from the Sprite Cup by Tolka Rovers last week, and yesterday they were handed a 70-58 defeat by Killester to add to the 73-56 loss to Denny Notre Dame on Saturday.

Two hard games in less than 24 hours is not exactly a big deal for Star, but they were extremely slow to start against Killester. Down 21-8 at the end of the first quarter and 38-20 at the half, it was only in the third quarter that John Leahy and Scott Summersgill managed to get into the game and reduce the gap to six points. But consistent displays from Dave Weaver, Damon Shoultz and Ed Randolf ensured the Dublin side held their advantage until the end.

It was not quite as bad against Notre Dame, but again they were chasing from the start. Even though they lost Anthony Jenkins early in the game, Notre Dame still lead by 33-30 at the half-way point before some superb shooting by Eric Blair and Ciaran Dempsey in the last quarter brought them their 17-point win.

So instead of narrowing the gap on Neptune, Star have dropped to five losses from 14 games and are now in a three-way tie for second spot with Notre Dame and Kerry Spring Killarney. The 80-72 win for the Kerry side over Tolka Rovers on Saturday has ensured that they stay in the title race.

Elsewhere, St Vincent's also kept their title hopes alive with a 76-66 win over the Sligo Dairies. It was extremely tight up to halfway, with Sligo trailing by just four, but with Brian Tonkovich extending his scoring total to 27 points there was no real competition for St Vincent's in the final quarter. They're now equal on 16 points with Clare, the Demons and Killester behind the leading four teams.

In the women's Superleague, Tolka Rovers made it 11 from 11 with their 65-54 win over Killester, but they had to work hard for the points. Killester were up 19-13 after the first quarter with Gillian Ennis and June Blount having an excellent game, and they were then level 31-apiece at the half. After that, Rachel Kelly increased the tempo for Tolka so that they were never headed again.

Second-placed Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats keep the gap on the leaders to four points with their 97-56 victory over Crusaders, who are still looking for their first win of the season.