First league victory for Siggiewi

Starlites Naxxar 29 Siggiewi St. Nicholas 66 (4-17, 12-14, 8-17, 5-18)

Both sides had lost their opening league matches and it was Siggiewi who recuperated to post their first win whilst Starlites were suffering their second consecutive defeat.

A good opening gave Siggiewi the fillip they needed to take the game into their stride and never allowing their opponents to creep nearer as they won all four sessions of play.

The young Starlites outfit have started from scratch with players being upgraded from junior strings and the going is certainly tough for them.

On the other hand, Siggiewi were replete with experienced players who kept pressing their superiority as time went on.

Starlites had Alex Cutajar and Matthew Farrugia in the side in lieu of Owen Psaila and Adam Vella Cardona. Siggiewi also had new faces in their side. Nello Xuereb was back after missing a couple of seasons with a good performance. Reno Camilleri was making his first start of the season and the Serbian Slavko Opojevlic was back after his Independence Cup games.

Siggiewi quickly raced into a solid 15-0 advantage as Xuereb nailed a brace of triples and Keith Scicluna and Hubert Agius added more hoops. Starlites managed a couple of hoops with Scicluna again netting in between.

In the second period the play was somewhat balanced. Luca Vella netted a Starlites trey and Chris Doublet put in two hoops but Siggiewi had answers in Xuereb and Gabriel Agius hoops to keep their side on a sound advantage till the interval when Siggiewi were on a handsome 3116 lead.

After the break, it was Scicluna yet again to torment the Starlites defence. Alex Cutajar managed a brace of baskets for Starlites and Vella netted another triple but Siggiewi ended the session an an 8-0 run with a Robert Camilleri trey taking his side to a better 4824 lead.

In the last quarter, Starlites were hit once more as Siggiewi began with a good 12-2 run with Scicluna and Jake Carter hoops. Starlites were only limited to a few more points as Reno Camilleri also put in his name on the scoresheet for Siggiewi with his side ending with a wide margin of victory.

Starlites: M. Azzopardi 2, L. Vella 8, C. Doublet 7, M. Vella, I. Pace 2, M. Schembri 2, A. Xuereb, A. Cutajar, Q. Bugeja 2, A. Cutajar 6, M. Farrugia

Siggiewi: J. Carter 4, JP Antoncic 1, K., Scicluna 22, N. Xuereb 12, H. Agius 4, G. Agius 6, S. Opojevlic, R. Camilleri 4, Re. Camilleri 4, J. Camilleri 6, C. Bezzina 4 Referees: Z. Dobrosavljevic, I.

Marjanovic