Notre Dame's shock defeat on Saturday night in Tralee meant that Star of the Sea were sure of their first league championship even before they played Dungannon yesterday at the Maysfield Centre.
Star still went out and won comfortably by 110-90 to celebrate their success in front of their home supporters in spite of missing their American John Leahy who was rested because of a lingering wrist injury.
Effectively, Star had the Superleague title won with all of three matches remaining and should they win their last two games, they will have equalled Neptune's achievement from last season of losing just once in the campaign.
Notre Dame bore all the signs of a team which had given up the chase when they took to the court in Tralee. The Kerry club, lying joint bottom of the table and playing with only one American, utilised a full court press early on and created severe problems for their tired looking opponents and by half time, Tralee led 56-41.
With Roscoe Patterson scoring 36 points and marking Lennie McMillan out of the game for lengthy periods, Tralee just kept stretching their lead in the third quarter and with 10 minutes remaining they had a 25 point advantage at 96-71.
Star's champagne performance in Belfast yesterday was capped by Gareth Maguire's highest scoring game of the season. The Irish international forward shot a personal season-high total of seven three-pointers in his 37 point contribution.
Star led 58-43 at the break and although Dungannon brought the deficit back to six points during the second half, Danny Fulton's men always looked likely to win with ease.
Veteran Javan Dupree ably deputised for the absent Leahy and scored 23 points as did Chuck Guittar.
That defeat for Dungannon coupled with victories for St Vincent's and Ballina means that there is now a clearly defined gap between the top six teams and the bottom four. With the leading half dozen at the end of the campaign qualifying for the post-season National Championships, the favourites to join Star and Notre Dame are now Killester, Dungannon, St Vincent's and Ballina.
St Vincent's won the Dublin derby against Killester yesterday in Glasnevin 91-82, in spite of playing without Andy Meyer for the second half after the American twisted an ankle.
Ballina's 95-94 victory over Marian in Belfield on Saturday night came only after the home side pulled back a 21 point halftime deficit. Ballina's Joe McLean, with 42 points, was the outstanding player in the game.
In Cork on Saturday, Neptune won for only the fifth time this season by defeating fellow strugglers St Paul's Killarney 96-90.
In Division One, both of the top two teams, Sligo and Waterford were beaten so Limerick, after a 110-99 win over Tridents, move into contention level in second place with Waterford, just two points off Sligo.
