Belfast Star enjoyed a second straight win in the Domino's Men’s Super League with a comprehensive 112-76 victory over Energywise Ireland Neptune.
Irish international Rapolas Buivydas had a stellar game with 24 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in just 27 minutes of play. He wasn’t without support either with Conor Liston, Aidan Quinn and Max Richardson scoring 21, 18 and 17 points respectively.
Belfast started the game hot and never let up, taking a 19-point lead into the half-time break. After the break, they only seemed to pick up more and more which inevitably lead to a 36-point win.
Elsewhere, new boys Limerick Celtics, who won at the death in week one against Ballincollig, were on the receiving end this week as EJ Sligo All-Stars scored a buzzer-beating jumper through Elijah Faapito to take home their first victory of the campaign in a 88-86 scoreline.
Elijah had a steady performance with 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists. But it was the duo of Jazere Noel and Christian Michael Williams, who combined for 49 points, that drove Sligo through the pressure that came from the newly-promoted Limerick side.
In another game that went down to the wire, Garvey’s Tralee Warriors took a late win over UCD Marian by a score of 77-74.
Following a three-pointer from Joshua Reynolds, who had a game-high 22 points, to tie the game, it was Jordan Perkins who hit a two with less than 20 seconds on the clock and followed that up by making a free-throw to ice the game and get Tralee on the board in the win column this season.
Eoin Quigley put on a strong performance for the Kerry men with 19 points and nine rebounds to accompany Perkins' 21 point showing.
In Cork, St Vincent's player Jaylyn Richardson put in arguably the individual performance of the weekend, scoring 36 points in just 34 minutes, including five threes, as the men from Dublin took home an impressive victory over Ballincollig by a score of 95-91.
St Vincent's will be happy with their response this week after a heavy loss to Killester in week one. As for Ballincollig, they continue to search for their first win of the season following a second loss despite a strong showing again from the trio of Josh Steel, Latrell Jossell and Latavious Mitchell.
They will be hoping to get their season back on track next weekend in a Cork derby against Neptune.
In the second local derby of the weekend, Killester and Griffith College Éanna, who had polar opposite opening weekends last week, met and this time Éanna came out victors by 96-85 in Killester.
It was a huge bounce-back performance led by the three men; Sean Jenkins, who had 24 points, Mikah Blackwell with 19 points and six rebounds and Kristijan Andabaka who had 18 and six assists.
For Killester, it was Paul Dick who was leading the offensive charge with a game-high 28 points accompanied by six rebounds and four assists. Killester will be hoping to respond next week as they travel to Killorglin to face Flexachem KCYMS on Saturday night.
