Athleta A to Z Electronics produced a strong performance to beat BUPA Luxol 94-85 in game one of the best-of-five play-off final series on Sunday.
BUPA Luxol 85
Athleta A TO Z Electronics 94
(25-20, 13-24, 18-29, 29-21)
Athleta launched their bid to reclaim the national championship they had surrendered to Floriana last season, with a solid perfor-mance against Luxol.
It was a deserved victory for Joe Galea’s men who were the better team in a high-scoring and entertaining encounter.
Luxol, on their part, complained about some controversial decisions taken by the match officials, most notably the technical foul handed to coach John Tabone.
However, they only have themselves to blame for this upset. In fact, no team can aspire to win a match at this level without a compact rearguard as Athleta profited from Luxol’s static defending to score points at crucial moments.
Luxol’s Michael Myers Keitt did not play to his level, fading out after a bright start, with Steve Schembri limiting the threat posed by the US player.
Athleta captain Michael Naudi and Chad Patus again tormented Luxol’s defence while playmaker Omar Said also played his part in his team’s victory.
After an encouraging start, Luxol lost their momentum with several players, particularly Nicola Vasovic and Adrian Micallef, opting to shoot when in sight of the ring without testing the Athleta defence.
This tactic played in the hands of the more-organised Athleta.
Luxol had taken a 13-7 lead. Despite being handicapped by a third foul handed to pivot Samuel Deguara after only six minutes, they managed to withstand Athleta’s comeback efforts to lead 25-20 at the end of the first quarter.
After obtaining the first three points of the second session, Athleta, following a time-out and substitutions, improved. They started to exploit the gaps in Luxol’s defence which lost its early momentum.
Athleta enjoyed an 8-0 run to go 40-34 ahead. As Luxol persisted with their hurried shots, Athleta duly took advantage to go 44-38 in front.
Luxol’s reaction failed to materialise after the interval with Athleta pulling further ahead to extend their lead to 19 points, 71-52.
Luxol surpassed a difficult moment to launch a comeback but after closing the gap to eight points, 82-74, they were again let down by rushed conclusions as well as their inability to make most of the fact that four Athleta players were on their fourth foul.
Luxol: C.J. Cordina, M. Mercieca 7, A. Micallef 8, N. Andrejevic, J. Willoughby, J.P. Schembri 6, N. Vasovic 18, J.P. Bonnici, M. Myers Keitt 24, A. Micallef Trigona, S. Deguara 22, S. Capello.
Athleta: M. Naudi 21, D. Bugeja 2, C. Patus 27, C. Galea, W. Spiteri, O. Said 15, S. Pace 3, K. Baldacchino 5, S. Bischoff S. Schembri 21.
Referees: E. Mangani, C. Terribile and T. Helenius.
Next fixture
BOV League final series (game 2): Tomorrow, 20.15 Athleta vs Luxol.