St James Hospital MBA Shield – Men 1 Div. Group 1
Bupa Luxol 69
AtoZ Electronics Athleta 66
(13-17, 17-8, 19-18, 20-23)
A full blown encounter saw Luxol get the better of the champions but their win lacked the necessary points to make it to the semis. As it was, Athleta kept their top position finishing on a par in points difference with Depiro but winning on a direct encounter.
Athleta will meet Floriana and Depiro will face Siggiewi.
The Violets recovered Andrew Micallef Trigona after quite some time missing.
Athleta had to make do without Michael Naudi and Addison Bonnici, the latter just on the bench.
The game was chock full of triples which had players on both sides with good personal scores as Luxol’s CJ Cordina put in five with Nikola Vasovic getting three more and Stephen Shackleford netting two.
Athleta’s Omar Said also nailed five treys and David Bugeja got two with others from Kristin Baldacchino and Steve Schembri.
Athleta lost a good first session advantage with Luxol rallying back to acquire a 30-25 halftime lead.
Although the champions regained their advantage Luxol’s pressure had them back in front on a 49-43 score with a session to go. Athleta managed to tie the score only for the Violets to make up a solid 12-0 run which prevented Athleta from going ahead once more although their last points eased their minds as to their progress into the semis.
Cordina totalled 26 points for Luxol along with 20 from Shackleford
and 17 from Vasovic.
Athleta had Marco Todorovic and Said both on 18 points with Bugeja netting 13 more points.
Luxol: CJ Cordina 26, M. Merciaca 4, J. Willoughby, A. Said, S. Shackleford 20, A. Micallef Trigona, N. Vasovic 17, T. Paris, E. Bonello, E. Caruana Montaldo, JP Bonnici 2, S. Cappello
Athleta: D. Bugeja 13, M. Todorovic 18, M. Giusti, Z. Borg, O. Said 18, S. Pace, K. Baldacchino 9, S. Schembri 8
Referees: G. Barbara, E. Mangani, A. Carbonaro
Group 2
Floriana take their place in the semis
Tata Motors Loyola 55
Floriana Francesco Fenech 68
(13-15, 10-17, 10-16, 22-20)
Floriana were the second team to go into the semis along with Siggiewi from the group.
They were ahead for most of the match and when they opened up their advantage after the break, there was no way back for Loyola, with the Greens finishing up comfortable victors.
Floriana were missing Dirk Schembri for this encounter but they recovered Ian Mercieca.
Floriana were ahead in the opening period but Loyola crawled back to just a hoop behind with a Billy Zammit triple.
A second Zammit trey in the next session had Loyola in front but Floriana’s Sasoun Saakian also netted a triple with the Greens then ending the period with a 10-2 run which had them 32-23 in the lead at the interval.
The Greens then began with a three hoop burst after the break and though Loyola hit back, Floriana were in a good position after three sessions on a 48-33 score.
Loyola had Clint Cassar with another triple and a further 8-2 run with a JP Azzopardi trey brought them somewhat nearer. Floriana then picked up once more to veer away to a safe position. Zammit netted his third triple for Loyola to close down the match.
Zammit finished up with 17 points and Azzopardi netted 16 for the losers.
The Greens had Phillip Thomas with a sound 24 point tally and Chris Sammut put in 16 more points.
Loyola: V. Nikolic, B. Zammit 17, C. Borg, C. Cassar 8, S. Borg, L. Azzopardi 3, S. Vella, A. Axiaq 9, JP Azzopardi 16, M. Grech, J. Ransley 2
Floriana: G. Szokreny 4, D. Camilleri 4, C. Sammut 16, I. Mercieca, S. Sammut 5, C. Calleja 4, D. Schembri, P. Thomas
24, M. Ciantar 4, S. Saakian 7
Referees: B. Vassallo, E. Mangani, S. Gouder