McGuirk ignites Saints fire

The Saints will look back on this weekend with some satisfaction as they raced to the top the ESB men's league with two important wins, away to UCD/Marian on Saturday and at home against Killester yesterday.

Their run now extends to six wins from seven games, after making a premature exit from the cup, and they lead Notre Dame in the league table by two points.

The weekend was always going to be a big one for the Saints, and on Saturday night they moved to joint top of the table after their 79-84 win over UCD/Marian in a close match which was decided largely in the last quarter.

The in-form Irish international Stephen McGuirk ignited the final part of the match when he landed 34 points and in the process sank four outstanding three-pointers. The last 15 minutes proved fatal to UCD/Marian when they had nine consecutive fouls called. The Saints then edged out in the last three minutes to grab a five-point win.

Yesterday's 94-78 win over Killester was supposed to be the Saints first outing in the new gym at Dublin City University. However, due to a leak in the roof the game was delayed and relocated to the Saints old gym at St Vincent's.

The home team had a big start and controlled the match. Although Killester came back strongly in the final quarter and came to within 11 points, the home team ended the day with a comfortable win.

The Saints brace of wins dovetailed with Notre Dame's shock defeat by Demons, who provided their best performance of the season to the packed crowd at the Parochial Hall. In doing so Demons became the first side to defeat Notre Dame in the league. The match also offered Tobe Carberre a role as crowd pleaser with his five slam dunks, two of them reverse.

Demons were eight points up going into the last quarter, and although Notre Dame brought it back to within three points a Brian Clernon three-pointer kept his side ahead for the surprise of the weekend. The result leaves Demons comfortably mid table.

An 81-102 win for Limerick over Killarney keeps them in contention and in the top four with eight points, along side Waterford Crystal. Waterford lost 81-79 to Tolka Rovers but keep their statistics reasonably smart with four wins from six matches.

It was, however, Limerick's match against Killarney that provided the biggest personal tally of the weekend when MVP Tilotis Brown went on a scoring spree, landing 48 points with five three-pointers from the 102 total.

The result was another blow for Killarney, who now languish close to the bottom of the table with only one win from eight matches. Tyrone Towers prop up the bottom with no wins from four, but with Killarney and Sligo with just two points each, there is not much separating the bottom three teams.