Leaders stretch further away from the pack

THE whispered belief that the Budweiser Superleague has already become a straight duel between Neptune and Star of the Sea gained many more subscribers after a weekend which saw them stretch further clear of their pursuers.

After just seven rounds of matches, there is now a four-point gap between second-placed Star and third-placed St Vincent's and there is little evidence that any of the chasing teams have the required consistency to mount a challenge for the title.

It was no surprise that Neptune and Star won again, both convincingly, but it was a major shock that struggling Marian should pick up only their second win of the season at the expense of St Vincent's.

Even more remarkable was the 21-point margin of Marian's victory against the team that has won the title twice in the 1990s. The stunning, 39-point debut performance of Marian's new American, Jason Siemon, had a lot to do with it, but there were valuable contributions as well from three of Marian's Irish squad members, Alan Fearon, Ray O'Neill and Gary Edge, each of whom scored 14 points. Fearon's total included four three-pointers.

Considering that Marian were still missing their injured Irish star, Patrick Glover, it was an exemplary performance and one that will give Delta Notre Dame food for thought as they meet Marian in the cup in a fortnight.

Delta were involved in another Dublin derby game in Clontarf on Saturday and were on a high following seven straight wins in league, cup and tournament play. Their opponents, Killester, one of the fancied teams in pre-season, had only demonstrated that they could be as good one week as they could be bad the next.

That level of fluctuation in team performance prompted club mentor Declan King to bring in a sports psychologist, Tom Moriarty, to brief the squad immediately before Saturday's game. By all accounts, his input had a marked effect on Killester who won 102-97 to go joint third in the table.

Delta led 10-2 after five minutes, but following a Killester time-out the game swung dramatically. Killester's point guard, Kevin Coffey, quickly became a prime influence, and with Arnericans Prentis Phillips and Randall Mounts scoring freely from good service, the home team went in 60-48 ahead at the break.

Killester increased their lead to 16 points in the second half, but then, rather prematurely, they began to rest Phillips and Mount and run their bench.

Delta gradually worked their way back into the game, and when Lennie McMillan landed a three-pointer with eight minutes remaining the deficit was down to 10.

Delta kept whittling away, and by the time Phillips was penalised for an intentional foul with two minutes to go there was only four points between the teams. McMillan made both free throws to make it a two-point game, but somehow Killester kept their heads and held out to win by five.

Phillips was the highest scorer in the game on 38 points while Mounts tallied 31.

That was the only close match in the Superleague over the weekend, as both Neptune and Star won with ease, as did Sligo, who turned over bottom-of-the-table Queens 106-76.