Neptune's third defeat in a row since the start of the season sees them rooted to the bottom of the Budweiser Superleague and already their chances of retaining the title look slim with less than a month gone in the campaign.
The Cork club's heavy 112-95 home defeat by league leaders Notre Dame was hard to take for the crowd of 1,200 which thronged the Neptune Stadium on Saturday night. Such a dramatic fall from grace leaves their young coach Mark Scannell with an unenviable task of trying to retrieve something from the season.
Before the match, a remarkable sequence of events saw Notre Dame's American Paul Hodges join Neptune who had already cut Chris Ward from their playing staff on Friday. Meanwhile, Notre Dame registered the much-travelled Randall Mounts who played superbly on his debut scoring a game high of 37.
Notre Dame's tremendous depth of talent helped them to a first-half scoring spree and, in a free-flowing game, they led 65-43 at the break. Early in the second half Neptune chipped away at the deficit and reduced it to nine points with five minutes remaining, but the Dubliners pulled away again to win by 17.
Star of the Sea remain joint leaders after they had an impressive 98-84 win in Killester. John Leahy, on 29, and Chuck Guittar, on 20, were the top scorers for the Belfast side.
Even at this early stage the championship appears to be shaping into a two-way contest, although Ballina look capable of forcing their way into the challenge if they can take points off the top two.
The Mayo club have been transformed from early season strugglers into a potential trophywinning team by the arrival of American Joseph McLean 10 days ago. Following a 29-point contribution to Ballina's victory over Neptune a week ago, the former University of Arizona star shot another 32 points in a 115-96 win over St Vincent's yesterday in Glasnevin.
McLean's presence has clearly released his fellow American Chris Doyal into a free role and his 44-point tally was the matchwinning element in the game.
The surprise team of the season so far, Dungannon, picked up their third win of the campaign with a tense 94-93 victory in UCD on Saturday over Marian. Shooting forward Alcinder Boller scored 30 for the Tyrone side who are now third in the table.
The Kerry derby in Killarney produced a first win of the season for St Paul's who defeated Tralee 86-80. In a match played in front of a capacity crowd the home side went 54-36 ahead early in the second half only for Tralee to level at 61-all entering the final quarter. From then on, the lead changed hands several times before a couple of three-pointers from Vince Daly and Brian Clarke in the last four minutes helped St Paul's to their six-point winning margin.
Waterford's unbeaten run came to an end in Division One as MSB exacted revenge for two early season defeats by beating the southerners 91-70. Sligo went clear at the top of the table with a 104-82 win over Tridents.
In the ESB women's Superleague the reigning champions Wildcats saw off the challenge of a serious rival - for the third week in a row - with a 78-72 win over Tolka Rovers in Griffith Avenue. Tolka's Suzanne Maguire was the top scorer in the game on 26.
