Confident Neptune move closer to title

A CONFIDENT free flowing Neptune displayed no symptoms of winning post nerves as they went another step closer on Saturday night…

A CONFIDENT free flowing Neptune displayed no symptoms of winning post nerves as they went another step closer on Saturday night to clinching the Budweiser Superleague title.

After their hard fought win over Star of the Sea in Belfast last week, the match on Saturday at home to third placed St Vincent's was always going to be the most difficult of their last four games. The fact that they won convincingly 115-101, and never looked in danger in the second half, was a dispiriting sign for their lone pursuers Star of the Sea.

Star still managed to keep up the pressure on the leaders by coming from behind at half time to sweep Marian off the court 114-74 yesterday in Ballsbridge but the task ahead of Neptune now is looking more and more achievable. Two of their last three games are against relegation threatened teams, Queen's and Sligo, while their other opponents, St Paul's Killarney, were actually beaten by bottom club Queen's 89-85 on Saturday in Belfast.

In any case, the Corkmen can afford to lose once and still be champions.

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Against St Vincent's, Neptune were superb from the tip off with point guard Stephen McCarthy playing some of his best basketball of the season. His service to Mario Mullen and Terry Strickland was so effective that by half time, the game was almost decided as the home side led by more than double scores, 63-31.

Their fast breaking was reminiscent of the great Neptune side of the 1980s and Tom Wilkinson could afford to run his bench generously in the final few minutes and still wind up winners by a comfortable margin.

McCarthy and back to form Terry Strickland were the top scorers in the game on 30 points each while Mullen on 24 made his usual solid contribution.

For St Vincent's, Doug Arnold recovered sufficiently from a midweek back injury to play and although he scored 29 and fellow American Eric Stevens scored 24, they could not hold rampant Neptune in check in the first half. Even 19 second half points from Mick Richardson failed to make a serious impression on that massive half way deficit.

Star had to beat Marian but, at half time, the Belfastmen trailed 48-45. In the second half, however, they raised their game to win by all of 40 points with Gareth McGuire finishing on 29, Gabe Jackson on 24 and John Leahy on 21.

In spite of St Vincent's defeat, the Glasnevin team stay behind Star in third place and should they win their back match against Killester on Tuesday night, they will be almost assured of their Top Four championship berth. However, a win for Killester would open up the race for the last two available places to a total of five teams.

Three days later, on Friday, Killester will meet Delta in another Dublin derby with a bearing on the Top Four. Both sides won on Saturday - Delta coming away victorious from Tralee 105-87 while Killester won 118-99 in Sligo helped by a remarkable 42 points from Prentis Phillips who played with a recently repaired dislocated finger.

In Division One, outright leaders Dungannon ran up a huge total to beat Tridents 132-105. Ballina's 94-87 home win over MSB took the Mayomen into outright second place in the table.

In the Gateaux women's division one, an easy 107-54 away win for Wildcats over Brunell took the Waterford side into the outright lead, two points clear of Meteors who had a rest weekend and Naomh Mhuire who were 76-44 winners in Tralee.