With just four days to go to the Cup play-offs, Neptune have confirmed that they are again a side to be feared in Irish basketball as they defeated old sparring partners St Vincent's 88-78 in Dublin yesterday.

Neptune's third victory in a row in the space of just nine days has lifted them out of bottom position in the league and they are now realistic contenders again for the most glamorous event on the basketball calendar next weekend.

Neptune led 42-38 at half time and their 10-point success featured a season-high tally for their Cuban Augusto Duquesne.

All four qualifiers for the semi-finals of the cup warmed up with victories in their last league game before the play-offs. Star of the Sea were the most impressive of all as they blitzed depleted Marian 124-88 in Belfast yesterday.

Marian went into the game without the injured Neville Charles and the unavailable Gary Edge and while they performed more than respectably in the first half, holding the deficit to just eight points (57-49), they could do little to resist Star's superb all court game in the second period.

The Belfast club piled on a remarkable 67 points to their tally after the interval with shots raining in on the Marian basket from all over the court. Irish international Gareth McGuire had his highest scoring game of the season with a 33-point contribution while Chuck Guittar scored 27 and John Leahy 21.

For the second week in a row, Notre Dame had to come from behind at the break to win a league match. The Dublin side, currently second in the table, scored only 29 points in the opening period in Dungannon on Saturday and trailed by nine at half time before finding their true form after the break to win comfortably, 93-81. Lennie McMillan dislocated a finger early in the second half but a doctor manipulated it back into place and the veteran Notre Dame star played on, eventually scoring 24.

The league's top scorer, Roscoe Patterson, improved his season's average by more than a point by scoring 46 in Clontarf on Saturday but it was not enough to compensate for the absence of a second foreign player in the Tralee lineup.

Tony McDonagh marked his recent return to Killester with a 20-point personal total in the game as Eric Blair top-scored for the north Dublin side with 25 in a 119-83 win.

Patterson's 46 points was matched by Ballina's Joe McLean in the Mayo club's 92-85 victory in Killarney for whom Steve Polonowski scored 42.