Mellieha Libertas     75     Gzira Athleta     49

(12-16, 17-15, 21-9, 25-9)

The Mellieha outfit recorded another win, their second in the league campaign, whilst Athleta are still searching for their opening seasonal victory, and are now with two defeats, in their defence of the league title, won these last two seasons. An interesting match, until midway through the third session of play, was marred by an innocuous incident, when Athleta's Italian player, Nicolo Guida, was involved in an altercation with Mellieha's Christian Briffa. At the referee's whistle, for an infringement, there were pitch invasions from both benches, with the result of a spate of expulsions, as in the rules of the game. From then on Athleta's play deteriorated, and Mellieha took the opportunity to push themselves away from their opponents, and establish a winning margin, leaving Athleta away behind them. Mellieha recovered their Philippine player, Jhun Lisandro, but their other Philippine, Cyril Lastimosa, was missing. Athleta had two foreigners absent, in their Italian, Nadir Serafini, and the Greek, Aki Kechagias.

It was tit for tat at the start, with Athleta replying to Mellieha's early hoops, and Serbian, Alex Novakovic sinking a triple. Mellieha kept chasing their adversaries, but Athleta held on to their advantage, till the end of the session. Athleta kept their opponents at bay in the next period, and Edward Sciberras also netted a trey. Mellieha still kept close, and late in the session, a Lisandro triple tied the score, only for Athleta to gain another advantage, holding on till the interval, and resting on a slim 31-29 score.

After the break, Athleta pulled away once more, with Eric Abela and Novakovic points, the latter with his second trey. Mellieha recovered sufficiently, to post a good 11-1 run, as Serbian, Nenad Stojanovic was still putting in his buckets, and Lisandro managed a second triple, and they went ahead for the first time. Then came the incident described above. Athleta's Guida was expelled, in the incident, and there were also ejections, as bench players and personnel went on court. Athleta lost their Italian, Ivan Cascione, and Mellieha had Serbian, Alex Perunicic, and Portuguese, Miguel Costa, also out. There was also the ejection of Mellieha's manager, Italian Nicolo Petrucci. When play restarted Athleta seemed a spent lot. Till the end of the period a 10-0 Mellieha run had taken them to a 50-40 lead, and in the last quarter a further 9-0 run, with a Stojanovic trey, had the Northerners way out in front. When Athleta finally responded, they could only share the play for some time. The last part of the match was again in Mellieha's hands, as they made up a final 11-2 run, for a comfortable victory.

Mellieha: A. Schembri 2, R. Loporto 7, J. Lisandro 7, J. Vaz 1, A. Perunicic 2, C. Briffa 7, N. Stojanovski 27, E. Lupo 10, K. Skrabec 6, C. Sultana 1, R. Costa 5, M. Costa

Athleta: E. Sciberras 5, N. Guida, K. Vitonis, E. Abela 10, H. Agius 5, S. Galea 6, I. cascione, A. Novakovic 17, N. Buhagiar 4, J. Ransley 2, R. Abela

Referees: K. Dworniczak, L. Camilleri