With their new acquisitions from Floriana, the Qormi team hardly felt their suspended players in their first seasonal match, which opened the Basketball season. The new, young Loyola side were no match to their seasoned opponents, and had to bear the brunt of incessant assaults.

Qormi had a strong opening, and a 12-0 lead, before Loyola could open their account. Till the end of the session Qormi replied with another 11-0 run. The second quarter saw Qormi increasing their lead, although not so easily as before and at the half-time buzzer it was a 37-11 game.

After the break the play fell away as Qormi started to waste their possessions, but Loyola didn’t improve their scoring so much. The tempo picked up in the final quarter, as Qormi gave space to their opponents, who produced a string of treys to hike up their score, although they were beyond reach of Qormi. Nearly all the players took part as Qormi underlined their potential for the new season.

Qormi: 18 Keith Scicluna, 13 Antoine Grech, 12 Reuben Baldacchino.

Loyola: 9 Jean Falzon

Referees: Emanuel Mangani, Clive Terribile

Floriana 53

Mellieha 90

(14-16)(13-31)(13-18)(11-25)

Mellieha started off their season with a good win over a transformed Floriana side, who had a totally new look with a crop of young players, after an exodus nearly en masse, by their side. Mellieha recovered Samuel Aquilina after his long injury, and enticed Roberto Loporto from defunct footwork.

It was a balanced first session, as Floriana kept pace, and even held a lead for some time, but from then on Mellieha started to take command, and an 11-0 run pushed them clear of their opponents. Floriana started to stutter and Mellieha built up a 47-28 lead by the interval.

After the break Mellieha kept up the pressure but Floriana had a good patch to put up a respectable score, but Mellieha once more dominated the start of the last quarter to enhance their score. The game then evened out at the end as Mellieha were quite happy with their high score, and Floriana’s Robert Mercieca kept piling up the points.

Floriana: 26 Robert Mercieca

Mellieha: 21 Joshua Aquilina, 16 Graham Coleiro, 15 Robert Loporto

Referee: Stephen Micallef, Alfred Carbonaro