Floriana Café Del Mar 118
Athleta A-Z Electronics 113

(20-23, 17-19, 22-12, 15-20 – 12-12, 14-14, 7-7, 11-6)

Floriana needed four periods of extra-time before handing champions Athleta their first defeat in the league.

This was a tense and dramatic match, a very good advert for the sport. Athleta led for most of the normal time but Floriana, with their best possible formation, never wilted under the pressure.

There was little to separate both teams in the first two quarters as Athleta went in for the break leading 42-37.

Floriana were the more enterprising team after the interval, however, with American Matt Henniger coming more into the picture. Athleta suffered a dip in form and Floriana potted nine consecutive points to go 59-50 ahead.

A time-out helped the champions to surpass a difficult moment and regain the lead but Floriana hit back and held the edge until Omar Said forced extra-time with a perfect pot – 74-74.

Floriana looked close to victory in the first two periods of extra -time but, first, Athleta captain Michael Naudi cancelled the Greens’ advantage and then it was the turn of playmaker Roderick Vella to force another five-minute decider with the scores tied at 100-100.

Tiredness started to creep inside both teams. Floriana again held the lead but a Chad Patus basket drew the teams level for the umpteenth time.

At last, the deadlock was broken in the last minutes of the fourth extra-time period when Nicholas Vasovic nailed a three-pointer and Clayton Calleja then sealed the issue for the Greens.

Floriana: M. Henniger 46, D. Camilleri 6, N. Sultana 11, S. Borg 1, L. Ross 23, N. Vasovic 19, C. Calleja 12, D. Schembri, S. Determmen, O. Shamala, D. Agius.

Athleta: M. Naudi 25, R. Vella 14, F. Mifsud Bonnici, C. Patus 34, A. Aqulina 12, M. Gauci Montanaro, O. Said 24, M. Gouder 4.

Referees: B. Vassallo, C. Terribile, Z. Debroseljevic.

BUPA Luxol 78
Remax Siġġiewi Citadel 57

(24-13, 21-8, 15-18, 18-18)

Luxol recovered from their upset to Athleta to go joint top of the standings. More was expected from Siġġiewi but they were let down by a poor shooting percentage with Billy Zammit and Steve Sammut having an off day.

Luxol led 24-13 by the end of the first quarter and continued to show the better qualities to open a comfortable gap at the break – 45-21.

Coach Ray Muscat could not get his team going but in the third quarter Luxol playmaker Jean Paul Schembri marred his day when he got disqualified for retaliation with Luxol 51-27 ahead.

Without him, Luxol’s play suffered and their game became scrappy allowing Siġġiewi to share the exchanges till the end even though by that time the match was already won and lost.

Luxol: C.J. Cordina 16, A. Portelli 2, J. Willoughby 4, J.P. Schembri 10, N. Andrejevic, S. Visser, T. Staton 39, A. Micallef Trigona 2, J.P. Bonnici 2, S. Capello 3.

Siġġiewi: B. Zammit 7, J.P. Antoncich, S. Sammut 2, M. Cassar, M. Matijevic 4, R. Carabott 7, A. Micallef 20, B. Bartolo, R. Harris 17, M. Mallia.

Referees: E. Mangani, C. Terribile, Z. Debroseljevic.

PAVI Depiro 66
Virtus Cynergi 90

(20-25, 15-25, 12-19, 19-21)

Marco Todorovic potted 47 points but his impressive haul was still not enough for Depiro to upset Virtus Cynergi who continued with their recovery after a rather shaky start to the league campaign.

Depiro were only in the match for the first quarter but then Mike Bruesewitz started to collect the points for Virtus and Paul Ferrante’s team never looked back after that.

Trailing 50-35 at half-time, Depiro failed to react and through fast breaks and drives Virtus ex-tended their advantage to 69-47 at the start of the final ten minutes.

Ferrante opted to give his fringe players more time on court but Virtus were still strong enough to win the session and canter to victory.

Depiro: J. Attard, D. Schembri, T. Zammit 4, M. Todorovic 47, R. Zammit 6, K. Xuereb 3, M. Borg, S. Saakian 6.

Virtus: S. Pace 10, D. Bugeja 12, R. Bonnici 9, T. Grech 2, M. Bruesewitz 46, A. Felice Pace, A. Axiaq 4, I. Buldakov 7, G. Coleiro, M. Falzon, F. Bartolo.

Referees: E. Mangani, Z. Debro-seljevic, C. Albiun.

Standings: Athleta 7 (3-1), Luxol 7 (3-1), Floriana 6 (2-2), Virtus 5 (2-1), Siġġiewi 4 (1-2) Depiro 4 (0-4).

Top scorers: M. Todorovic ( Depiro) 129, M. Henniger (Floriana) 120, T. Staton (Luxol) 113, O. Said (Athleta) 83, C. Patus (Athleta) 79.

National League: (Thursday) 19.00 Siġġiewi vs Virtus Cynergi. (Saturday) 16.30 Athleta vs Depiro. (Sunday) 13.00 Virtus Cynergi vs Luxol, 16.30 Siġġiewi vs Floriana.

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