Basketball Ireland Super League

Belfast Star 87 Neptune 96

Rafi Olmassakian’s reign as head coach of Belfast Star got off to a very disappointing start when they lost at home 96-87 to Neptune on Saturday night in the All-Ireland Super League at the New Forge Complex.

Olmassakian has taken over from club legend Adrian Fulton who stepped down from his role in the summer and it was a baptism of fire for the new boss who will be hoping his men can bounce back very quickly when they travel this weekend to face Ballincollig.

The Belfast men were without top American TC Fields for their opening night due to a one-game suspension which was carried over from last season and it was clear that his physical presence and scoring prowess was badly missed against a very good Neptune side who brought a great deal of athleticism and proved to be ruthless in their scoring.

Star made a very promising start with Max Richardson (21pts), Max Cooper (17pts), new American Maurice Jones (25pts) and captain Conor Quinn (22) all hitting three pointers to give Star an 11-point lead with five minutes remaining in the first quarter. But Neptune, inspired by Daragh O’Sullivan (23pts) and Ar’mond Davis (25pts), took advantage of some defensive errors and by the end of the quarter Star’s lead was down to five, 26-21.

Star’s level dropped quite dramatically in the second quarter with Davis, Cian Heaphy and Jaksa Sola doing most of the damage. It seemed that every time Neptune drove forward they converted and in contrast Olmassakian’s men were failing to hit the basket and making too many errors.

From a promising first quarter, Star went into half-time trailing 55-43 and a shell-shocked home support were left wondering how their fortunes had slumped so badly.

Star came out fighting after the break with Max Cooper and Max Richardson hitting eight and seven points, respectively and at one stage the gap had closed to nine points. But then Daragh O’Sullivan bagged a couple of three-pointers and Neptune were right back in charge and led 80-64 going into the final quarter.

Star captain Conor Quinn took the fight to Neptune in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of his points but while the Belfast men battled to the end, Neptune never felt truly threatened and were comfortable winners.

Star Coach Olmassakian commented: “On defence we have to do a lot of work. We can’t be like that. We have been working on it but it looks like there is some stuff. We got exposed a few times but also we missed some good chances and they shot the ball really good – I’m not sure what the percentage is but it has to be crazy good.

“But that doesn’t mean that they can always take those shots, so it goes back to defence and we have to work on that. It’s a new system and coaching staff so it’s going to take time but we don’t have a lot of time. We only had two practice games coming into this so that was an issue.

“The boys gave everything they had and we need to regroup. We are all responsible so we need to work hard on that this week. We have to look at ourselves, work hard and go again.”