Defending champions Neptune were caught cold in their opening game of the Budweiser Superleague season as they suffered a shock defeat to UCD Marian 86-80 in Belfield on Saturday night. Marian showed the benefit of having one game behind them in the campaign by starting strongly to take a 10-point lead inside the first five minutes, before Neptune responded to level the score by half-time.

Again in the second half, Marian started the better and built a six-point advantage entering the last quarter, which they held on to.

Neptune's new American, Harold Joyner, was the game's highest scorer on 29, but the performance of their other new foreign player was less impressive. While Chris Ward had a solid game defensively, he scored just 13 points and his influence on the game diminished crucially in the closing minutes.

While Kevin Ellery (26 pts) and Mike Amos (20 pts) made solid contributions for Marian, two of their Irish players, Pat Glover and Neville Charles, were outstanding. Glover scored 19 points and was given the MVP award.

Star of the Sea, who have gone close to winning the last two league titles, took a big step yesterday towards winning a trophy that has eluded them with a 91-76 home win over St Vincent's in Belfast.

Star led 42-40 at half-time before pulling away to win comfortably. Gareth McGuire, with four three-pointers in a 25-point total, played a major part, as did top scorer John Leahy on 27.

Like Star, cup holders Delta Notre Dame also made it two league wins out of two with a 9085 win over Killester in Clontarf on Saturday night. In a tense conclusion to the game, Paul Hodges ensured victory for Delta with a three-point play in the final minutes.

The 1996 champions, Tralee, who nearly pulled out of the league in the close season, opened their campaign with a 91-81 win over Ballina, for whom Liam McHale scored 17 points on his return to basketball following his All-Ireland disappointment with Mayo. In the closest game of the weekend, newly-promoted Dungannon beat Killarney 75-74.

In the ESB women's superleague, reigning champions Wildcats won the big game of the weekend by defeating cup holders Naomh Mhuire 72-64. Michelle Aspell was top scorer on 23 points, while her Wildcats colleagues Jillian Hayes and Michelle Maguire each scored 19.

Elsewhere, Karen Staunton scored 27 points for Meteors in a 72-52 win over Killester, while Castleisland beat Tralee 58-53 and Tolka won 64-62 in Limerick.