Luxol 54
Pavi Depiro 76

(6-20, 14-18, 15-18, 19-20)

Pavi Depiro opened the best-of-five women’s league final play-offs with a clear-cut victory over Luxol on Sunday.

Luxol, the title holders, will now seek to force a third match and even the series by beating Depiro tomorrow evening.

Depiro continued with their good form of late when they took advantage of Luxol’s rather slow start to impose their play over the champions who had to do without the influential Mollie Williams.

US player Williams failed to recover from the injury sustained in midweek during a decisive semi-final clash against Hibs.

Depiro relied mostly on Latisha Belcher, Steffi DeMartino and Sam Brincat to launch their attacks and, in fact, they led 20-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Though Luxol improved, this was not enough as Depiro continued to hold the edge, changing ends 38-20 ahead.

Luxol kept trying after the interval but the nearest they came to their opponents was 12 points, 44-32. Depiro hit back strongly to start the last ten minutes with a comfortable 56-35 advantage.

Luxol pressed full court but were unable to derail Depiro from their tracks as the latter administered their lead without too much problems.

In the end, Luxol were also let down by a series of erratic shots and missed chances underneath the board.

Luxol: S. Pace 6, M. Sciortino 10, C. Medina 2, B. Naudi 17, J. Busuttil Gaerty, G. Zarb 8, P. Ellul 5, D. Muscat 6, M. Darmanin, K. Portelli.

Depiro: A. Mifsud 4, G. Mifsud 1, F. Bianco 8, S. Brincat 15, M. Bonett 2, S. DeMartino 16, M. Mifsud 1, M. Scicluna 1, L. Belcher 21, S. Micallef 4, B. Zammit 3.

Referees: B. Vassallo, G. Barbara, C. Terribile.

Tomorrow: (Game 2) 19.30 Depiro vs Luxol.
Sunday: (Game 3 – if required) 14.45 Luxol vs Depiro.