Solent Stars have got the measure of the lesser lights of basketball's National Conference.

But despite the ease of Saturday's 92-74 taming of Sutton Pumas at Fleming Park, coach Mark Scott believes there is plenty of improving to do before they can live with the big guns.

"We failed on a few of our objectives tonight, particularly in terms of killer instinct and hunger," he concluded. "We'll need to develop more of that if we are to compete against the likes of Plymouth and Teesside. Even against the weak teams we must learn to set the tempo and keep it going."

The cause of Scott's concern was Solent's failure to keep Pumas under the cosh having built up a healthy 30-point interval lead.

True, they didn't squander it completely as they did against the mighty Plymouth twice last month, but more dangerous opponents than Sutton would surely have made them pay for an scrappy second-half display which lacked the urgency of what had gone before.

Solent's unorthodox starting five of Dimitry La Croix, Alan McDonald, Nick O'Harabe, John Bynum and Marlin Capers made a steady, if unspectular start, pulling away to a 16-8 lead before court magician Bynum opened his box of tricks.

The classy Californian hit ten points in four minutes to leave Solent 29-11 up at the end of the first quarter and such was their domination of the second that Pumas were unable to score a field goal until the sixth minute.

Sutton's statistics from the free throw line were none too impressive either and, with confidence growing, Solent forged further ahead 55-25 at half-time, aided by three-pointers from La Croix and 32-point American Marlin Capers.

With Pumas emerging a more determined side, Solent took nearly three minutes to get back into their scoring stride through effervescent veteran Alan Cunningham in the third quarter.

A Bynum three-pointer and dunk soon got the 409-strong crowd chanting again and with 90 seconds of the quarter remaining, the player voted Stargazers' man-of-the-match, re-established Solent's 30-point advantage, 74-44, from a dazzling fast break.

Sutton, though, refused to give up. Trailing 76-50 going into the final quarter, they further trimmed Stars' lead to 20 points with four and a half minutes remaining.

With all fluency deserting them and players dropping like flies in the closing minutes, the game was in danger of dying as a spectacle.

But showman Bynum had one last trick up his sleeve, running the full length of the court and scything straight through the Sutton defence before coolly scoring.

Despite their shortcomings, Solent are undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with this season, but Scott is reserving judgment on their silverware potential.

He said: "Let's play everybody once and then we'll address that question again. It's looking promising and we'll have to hold on to that belief. For the fans' sake, it would be great to do well. They're sick and tired of losing."