In form Killester easily accounted for lowly Tolka Rovers with a 98-77 victory at Griffith Avenue last night.
It was a one-sided contest from the start and by half-time, Killester were 20 points clear at 53-33. From then on they could afford to run their entire bench and they finished with five Irish players on court.
Killester's elevation in the table was brought about in part by UCD Marian's feat in ending the 100 per cent winning record of surprise early pace setters Waterford on Saturday night in Belfield.
Marian's 86-80 victory owed as much to the resilient defensive work of Randall Mounts and Kevin Ellery as it did to the offensive game of their young star Irish player Patrick Glover who was their top scorer on 25.
Although they trailed at halftime 45-41, Marian were calm and efficient in the manner in which they contained Waterford's Americans Eric Blair and Roscoe Patterson and as the second half progressed basket for basket, it was Ellery and Gary Edge who fired in the scores that initiated their winning surge in the last four minutes.
Like Killester and Waterford, Star of the Sea are now on seven victories after they had an expectedly easy 85-67 victory over troubled Killarney in Belfast on Saturday night.
The Kerry club gambled on two new Americans, Terry Thomas and Craig Wilson but they were only moderately successful scoring a combined total of 39 points.
Killarney must have believed that their mid-week changes were working nicely when they went into a 21-10 lead after the first quarter but from there on Star were thoroughly dominant.
Neptune arrested their recent slide in form to beat Dublin Bay Vikings 65-60 in Cork on Saturday. The low score reflected the equally low entertainment value in a game which started with a slow pace and continued in that vein until the final minute in which Harold Joiner only put the match out of Vikings reach with two free throws with seven seconds remaining.
That consigned Vikings to their fifth consecutive defeat in league and cup.
The team in form for the past few weeks, Blue Demons, continued their climb up the table to joint fifth after a 79-68 win over Limerick. Dion Wingfield paved the way for the Corkmen's success with a blistering 13 points in the opening quarter on his way to a personal total of 39.
St Vincent's moved alongside Demons in the table on five wins after beating Dungannon 82-65 yesterday in Glasnevin where the home side led 41-23 at half time.
The most exciting game of the weekend was Notre Dame's 80-79 win over Sligo in Tallaght on Saturday where an Anthony Jenkins free-throw in the final minute decided the game.
In spite of having numerous subsequent chances in the last 30 seconds, Sligo could not get what would have been a winning basket.
In the womens ESB Superleague, Wildcats made it six wins out of six with an easy 69-33 defeat of bottom of the table Limerick while Killester moved into joint second place in the table with a 69-66 win over Tolka Rovers.
