Hibernians 34
Starlites Naxxar 56

(9-11, 6-12, 6-17, 13-16)

Starlites got back on track after two defeats in the women’s MSV Life basketball league to go to second in the table, but with a game less, behind Athleta and Luxol.

Hibs only managed to maintain the pace for 16 minutes when a couple of Trudy Armstead hoops put them 15-14 in the lead but a 14-0 Starlites run over the next seven minutes paved the way for a double-digit advantage which they never surrendered.

The second half was merely a formality with Starlites well in control and Hibs trying their best to improve on their points tally.

Patricia Arguello was again the main protagonist for the winners with centre Josephine Grima battling under the boards with Armstead who tried hard to show her worth along with team-mate and guard Silvia Gambino.

Hibs: E. Micallef 2, E. Cassar 4, S. Gambino 11, I. Agius 2, M. Said 1, K. Portanier Mifsud, N. Farrugia, T. Armstead 13, A. Marinkovic, J. Scerri 1.

Starlites: K. Galea 6, J. Doughty 2, S. Farrugia 4, D. Revol, K. Pirotta, J. Micallef, J. Grima 13, P. Arguello 29, E. Magrin, S. Davis 2, A. Lupo.

Referees: B. Vassallo, C. Farrugia, I. Marjanovic.

Gżira Athleta 66
Caffe Moak Luxol 53

(18-9, 8-15, 22-17, 18-12)

This win for Athleta means that now they lead the table along with Luxol who conceded their first defeat since Santino Coppa took over as coach.

Athleta’s Amelia Simmons and Christina Grima were immediately on song as they started scoring a good number of points.

Luxol hit their best patch as they kept their opponents at bay for the next four minutes and registered a 12-0 run which overturned the score in their favour following treys from Sarah Pace and Ina Baena Medina.

It was then a very close game till the 29th minute, 42-39, until Athleta closed off the third quarter and started the fourth with points from Grima and Sharon Vella for a 51-41 lead.

It was now an uphill task for Luxol and they could never got closer than six points away as Athleta kept calm and defended their lead for the fifth league win.

Athleta: C. Grima 25, B. Zammit 3, S. Pisani, L. Sciberras 6, A. Simmons 20, D. Said Hollier 4, A. Borg 4, S. Vella 4, C. Mifsud.

Luxol: S. Pace 14, M. Mercieca 9, A. Munir 17, I. Baena Medina 13, N. Vella, K. Calleja, P. Ellul, L. Caruana Montaldo, M. Darmanin, C. Curmi.

Referees: Z. Dobrosavljevic, I. Marjanovic.

Standings
Gżira Athleta (5-2) 12; Luxol (5-2) 12; Starlites (4-2) 10; Depiro (2-5) 9; Hibernians (1-6) 8.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.