The ninth day of the regular season ended with three teams – Depiro, Gżira Athleta and BUPA Luxol – leading the way and ascertaining their place in the play-offs, although top spot is yet to be determined.

With only one game to go, one place in the play-offs is still up for grabs.

A lot depends on tomorrow’s match between Floriana MCP Car Parks and Hibs.

After beating Starlites last weekend, Hibernians are still in the reckoning but they need to beat Floriana by 11 points in order to keep their hopes alive, even though they would also then need to beat Luxol next Sunday.

Should Floriana beat Hibs, or lose by less than 10 points, the Greens will be assured of a play-off spot.

With the teams so close in the table, direct encounters are likely to determine the final placings.

Bupa Luxol 66
Floriana Mcp Car Parks 52

(12-14, 18-9, 19-11, 17-18)

Two strong middle quarters paved the way for Luxol’s double over Floriana. Again, the main factor behind Luxol’s success was Sam Deguara’s evident height advantage underneath both boards.

In fact, Deguara scored all of Luxol’s first-quarter points, 12 in all, but it was Floriana who closed off in the lead 14-12 as they relied on the hoops from Chad Patus, Nikola Vasovic and Anton Axiaq.

An 8-0 run in the second quarter, thanks to Deguara and Pierce Cumpstone, helped Luxol to open the first significant lead as they then changed ends 30-23 ahead.

Although again without William Ahlberg, Luxol extended their advantage in the third quarter, going 49-34 ahead with ten minutes to play.

An initial 7-2 run in the fourth quarter, with five points from Stefan Cappello, made it a 20-point game, 56-36.

Floriana tallied up a better score with a series of baskets in the final minutes through Patus, Vasovic and Nikola Andrejevic.

Luxol: CJ Cordina 5, M. Mercieca 2, J. Maistre Melillo, JP Schembri, K. Dimech 2, P. Cumpstone 10, S. Deguara 36,  S. Cappello 11.

Floriana: C. Patus 15, S. Pace, S. Borg 5, N. Vasovic 21, C. Calleja 2, A. Axiaq 6, A. Micallef Trigona, N. Andrejevic 3.

Refs: B. Vassallo, E. Mangani and S. Micallef.

Cynergi Depiro 46
Gżira Athleta 77

(16-19, 7-14, 11-24, 12-20)

This was labelled as the ‘game of the week’ but it resulted in an easy win for Athleta as they ran over their opponents in the second half to end with a sizeable winning margin.

The start of the game had Depiro open an early 11-5 as DJ Mason and David Bugeja did the damage but Athleta’s offensive engine soon started running as they hit a 14-2 break.

Although the second quarter was quite dry from points, treys from Mason and Andrew Aquilina kept Depiro in the game but Athleta surged further ahead through more points from Michael Naudi.

A 9-2 run in second half helped Athleta go 42-25 ahead and now they were in charge of the match. Kurt Xuereb did grab a couple of hoops for Depiro but Athleta were not going to lose the momentum.

In fact, the last quarter was quite a formality with Athleta continuing to direct the game and even having more baskets from latest addition Mike Williams who scored his side’s last four hoops of the game.

Depiro: N. Grech, D. Bugeja 5, R. Bonnici 7, A. Aquilina 6, DJ Mason 13, T. Zammit, M. Mallia, A. Quiros 2, K. Xuereb 13, M. Borg, D. Scafidi.

Athleta: M. Naudi 17, R. Vella 2, D. Camilleri 2, M. Williams 16, P. Shoults 23, L. Stefanovic, B. Zammit 2, S. Vincic 2, J. Whitehead 13.

Refs: E. Mangani, Z. Dobrosavljevic and I. Marjanovic.

Starlites Naxxar 76
Hibernians 96

(19-27, 20-25, 15-20, 22-24)

Hibs kept their play-off hopes alive as they beat Starlites to also get their revenge after they had lost 103-94 to the same opponents in the first round.

Jacob Formosa was quite ‘on fire’ in the initial stages for Starlites as Hibs had Alvaro Lizaur immediately notching the first of his 38 points on the day.

Hibs started distancing themselves in the latter stages of the first quarter and an 8-2 run at the start of the second quarter continued to help them extend their lead to 35-21.

Even though Starlites replied with nine consecutive points, Hibs still regained composure with their tall trio doing most of the damage for a 52-39 lead.

This margin remained consistent for a good part of the third quarter but in the last minute Hibs had a six-point run, through Adrian Micallef and Lizaur.

The Spaniard potted his fifth trey of the day early in the fourth quarter as his side opened a 20-point lead and ascertained their second league win.

Starlites: I. Mitrovic 10, R. Carabott 3, A. Schembri 8, M. Falzon 2, A. Felice Pace 8, N. Stankovic 26, J. Formosa 19, I. Felice Pace.

Hibs: P. Attard 2, M. Hampton,  E. Xuereb, L. Farrugia 12, S. Attard 3, I. Bonett, A. Micallef 16, M. Matijevic 11, S. Vella, F. Mariani 12, A. Lizaur 38.

Referees: B. Vassallo, C. Farrugia, Z. Dobrosavljevic.

League standings
Depiro (6-3) 15; Gżira Athleta (6-3) 15; BUPA Luxol (6-3) 15; Floriana (4-4) 12; Starlites (2-7) 11; Hibernians (2-6) 10.

Remaining matches
Tomorrow: Floriana vs Hibernians.
Saturday: Athleta vs Starlites.
Sunday: Hibs vs Luxol, Floriana vs Depiro.