In the longest campaign in the history of the National Basketball league, Star of the Sea proved for the second year in a row that they are the best team in the country by putting the title out of the reach of their challengers with a victory by 83 points to 72 in Dungannon on Saturday night.

Waterford's long and effectively lone pursuit of the reigning champions came to an end just one week before the final round of matches and while the campaign did not go quite to the wire, there was a tremendous sense of relief in the Star squad late on Saturday night.

In spite of starting the game without Gareth McGuire and Kevin Craig, Star went into an early 24-8 lead only to be pegged back in the second quarter to the extent that their advantage was cut to five points (36-31) at the break.

Star's renowned strength in depth was always in evidence from there on and their persistence in playing to their strong inside players, in particular Ryan Howse, kept them in front until the end.

A superb final quarter by Howse, during which he scored eleven of his 25 point game total, ensured a comfortable enough margin of victory.

" Really it was pure talent that won the league for us. That, and the very hard work put in by the players especially after we lost in the cup", said Star coach Darren O'Neill afterwards.

"The cup semi-final defeat was devastating for us but it was a kind of double edged sword as it spurred us on to win the league again and we now want to add the Top Eight and make it a double," he added.

With the title now out of their reach, Waterford have tightened their hold on second place in the table by defeating Sligo 100-82 and they only need to win one of their two remaining game to be sure of the runners-up spot.