Davis leads the way as resilient Star rock Swords

THE new-look Belfast Star delivered one of the club’s best victories in recent years when they took the scalp of top Dublin outfit Swords Thunder on Saturday night.

Star bossed the game for long periods before going on to triumph 85-77 against a side that entered this year’s All Ireland Superleague campaign as one of the favourites for silverware, and for coach Adrian Fulton it was particularly pleasing to see the developing leadership qualities of American Mike Davis.

The Star men did have a wobble in the fourth quarter when Kevin Lacey drove the Dubliners back into contention and suddenly Fulton’s men found themselves all square at 68-all.

In recent years Star may well have capitulated but instead they dug deep and Davis was central to once more putting them back in command.

There was also a moment of brilliance from Adrian’s son CJ who on his debut at just 16 came up with a stunning three-pointer to give Star a 71-68 lead with five minutes remaining.

Davis and Slovenian Mark Burlic grabbed the game by throat and made sure that Star stamped out the Thunder’s threat, making sure the Belfast men enjoyed victory in their first home game of the season.

Coach Fulton said: “I was very pleased with how Mike Davis responded when Swords were putting us under pressure.

“We had a time-out and I told him that we needed him to step up and he did.

“He’s just out of American college and only 22 but he showed the kind of desire and quality that we need this year.

“Overall I thought we played very well in patches but then there were times when he lost our composure, got a bit too excited so it was annoying to see us work hard for baskets and then fives seconds later end up picking it out of own basket.

“At one stage we were 20 points ahead so to see that evaporate didn’t please me at all.

“But, overall I am very happy with the win. We had good performances from a lot of the guys and I have to give credit to Conor Quinn for playing with one arm — he’s waiting for surgery on his elbow but still made a great contribution.”

He added: “Also, it has to be said that CJ went into the game with a lot of expectation on his shoulders with it being his debut and he dealt with it really well and gave us two important three-pointers.

“Now we have the champions UCD at home this Saturday night and that is really going to show us just where we are at as a team.”

There was more good news for Star as their under-18 won their preliminary National Cup game 99-68 against St Brendan’s of Tralee yesterday with CJ Fulton top scoring on 27.

Fresh face: CJ Fulton on his debut for Belfast Star