Southern sides feel the heat
Indeed, it was a miserable weekend for South Conference teams after their recent Cup heroics with Joey Boylan’s St Vincent’s beating favourites Horan’s Health Store Tigers in overtime while Hibernian UCD Marian defeated Waterford Crystal.
Star were in superb form in their 97-87 win away to Neptune. “It was our best game of the season,” insisted Mark Fulton. “It was close until the fourth quarter. But we like playing at Neptune Stadium and we have a very good record there.”
Star and Killester are now locked together at the top of the North Conference, making Thursday night’s encounter all the more enthralling.
“We are actually playing better on the road and we are looking forward to the trip to Dublin,” Fulton added. “It was very important to win in Cork as it was our first big game back after Christmas.”
Neptune were disappointing on the night and when Star dictated the pace - using the clock to their advantage - the home side grew frustrated. Star held a two point lead (23-25) to end the first quarter. Neptune picked up the pace at the start of the second and opened up an eight point lead but John Leahy and Pat Campolieta combined to push Star a point clear at the break (45-46).
The third quarter was a shoot-out between Gordon Fitzgerald and Leahy with the quarter ending 64-73 in favour of Star. Neptune never really troubled the visitors in the final quarter and the visitors won out by ten.
That result gave Dart Killester an added incentive for their trip to the UL Arena in Limerick where they overcame BurgerKing 87-83.
“We had to win today,” Killester coach, Mark Ingle, said. “Star had a very good win against Neptune so we could not afford any slip up ahead of Thursday night’s game. But we did well. It was a very good, all round team performance.”
They were again without the ex-BurgerKing player, Keith Friel, but his replacement Harold Pierson landed 17 points.
“They shot the lights out in the first quarter - shooting 36 points,” Ingle said. “Matthew Hall was making a lot of threes and Jermaine Hunter was playing well. They led 53-47 at half time but we got to grips with matters in the second half, got ahead and played a solid defence.”
Blair Smith was top scorer for Killester with 23 points with Pierson and Damien Sealy on 17 while Matthew Hall shot 24 for BurgerKing and Jermaine Hunter had 22.
St. Vincent’s had to come back from the disappointment of their Cup loss to Demons when they hosted Horan’s Healthstore Tigers.
The game ended level (85-85) at full time but the home side grabbed the initiative in overtime to win handsomely (105-98). Elsewhere Hibernian UCD Marian enjoyed an 89-80 victory at home to Waterford Crystal.
Meanwhile in Women’s Superleague action Vienna Woods Glanmire bounced back from their Cup defeat to UL to overcome Scruffy’s St. Paul’s from Killarney by 14 points on Saturday night, (80-66).
Marie Breen from Mallow had an outstanding game for the winners, operating well on both ends of the floor and top scoring with 24 points. Sara Cartmill top scored for St. Pauls with 21 points and played her usual solid game.
University of Limerick kept their unbeaten home run intact with a 62-50 victory over Bausch & Lomb Wildcats while Dart Killester picked up another win, beating Tolka Rovers 72-56.
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