A serious row developed in the aftermath of Star of the Sea's 83-73 victory over Neptune at the Maysfield Centre in Belfast yesterday where blows were exchanged between two opposing players after the match had ended.
Seconds after the final buzzer had sounded Star's Ryan Howse attempted to shake the hand of Neptune's Harold Joiner just before the players left the court. Joiner reacted by raising his arm and appeared to strike Howse on the chin. Members of both teams then attempted to restrain both opposing Americans and there was no further incident on court.
However, after the teams left the arena, a more serious scuffle broke out involving Howse and Joiner in the corridor near the dressing-rooms which was then defused by members of both clubs.
Throughout, it had been a scrappy match in which Joiner looked particularly ill at ease. At one point in the first half he reacted badly to being withdrawn from the court by openly berating coach Mark Scannell who had a torrid afternoon as he also incurred a technical foul during the match.
With a great deal riding on the result, it was an error-strewn match in which tight defences raised hackles on both sides. Star led 38-32 after a low-scoring first half, but Neptune's Shawn Wilson initiated a fine comeback after the break with a hat-trick of threepointers.
By the end of the third quarter Neptune led 53-51 but in the final 10 minutes Star pulled away to a seven-point lead. Although Neptune pulled back to a four-point deficit with one minute and 24 seconds remaining, their tactic of fouling persistently from there on to stop the clock was punished by Star from the free throw line. Helped by six free throws out of six attempts late on by Adrian Fulton, Star stretched their winning margin to 10 points.
The Belfast club's main pursuers are still Killester, who remain in contention in spite of losing 7566 in Waterford on Saturday night.
Waterford entered the match following three consecutive defeats and their reaction to the pressure generated by those losses was impressive. In a basket-for-basket opening quarter, the teams were tied at 21-all. In the second quarter, Waterford placed high emphasis in defence and Killester were restricted to just seven points in that period, leaving the home side 38-28 ahead at the interval. In the third quarter, Roscoe Patterson (with 30 points), kept Waterford ahead, while in the final quarter, point guard Dean Kavanagh added seven points to the 13 he scored in the first half to help steer Waterford to a victory that has re-floated their title aspirations.
Elsewhere, the resurgent Limerick side became one of the few clubs this season to win both of their games on a double-duty weekend. Following their shock 72-62 win on Friday night over St Vincent's they defeated another Dublin club, Marian, 85-72, even without the services of their illness-struck American Charles Williams.
Limerick are now up to the relative safety of mid-table and have passed out early pace-setters Dublin Bay Vikings who lost their sixth consecutive league game on Saturday night in Dungannon where the home side won easily, 82-67.
Al Boller was the top scorer on 30 points for Dungannon for whom Trevor Smullen put in yet another high-scoring game with 23 points.
The revival of Blue Demons continued on their home court in Gurranabraher on Saturday night as they defeated Sligo 91-77 with Paco de Benito (21 points) and Duval Simmonds (20 points) both shrugging off injuries well enough to support top scorer, Dion Wingfield (27 points).
In the ESB Women's Superleague, there is already the look of a foregone conclusion about the destination of the title at the end of the season as Wildcats defeated one of their closest rivals, Killester, 78-61 in Waterford on Saturday night.
It was one of the toughest contests of the season so far with the result in doubt until the final quarter when the strength in depth and variety of scoring options won the game for Wildcats, for whom Jillian Hayes played superbly, scoring 27 points.
The victory marked the 30th consecutive win in national competition for Wildcats, who have now gone unbeaten for well over a year.
Meteors remain in second place in the table but eight points behind Wildcats, after a 63-60 home win over Tolka on Saturday night.
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