Opening league win for Mellieha Tritones

Starlites Naxxar 18 Mellieha Tritones 67 (7-13, 2-22, 7-14, 2-18)

Both sides were looking for their opening league victory and this decisively went Mellieha’s way with a runaway win in their second match whilst Starlites were suffering their third league defeat.

Starlites had Barthet for the first time this season and Adam Cardona Vella made a reappearance.

For Mellieha Ian Curmi this time went on court instead of just guiding the side from the bench and Emanuel Lupo was back after his marriage in the Mellieha ranks.

Ian Terribile started Mellieha off with his brace of hoops. Alex Cutajar sank a Starlites triple but Lupo gave Mellieha a better advantage with both sides making some more points till the end of the session.

The next session wa sa disastrous one for Starlites who just couldn’t get going. Mellieha began to pile up the points with Ben Aquilina and Janis Vibe putting in their hoops and Rihards Polis netting two late triples in a solid 22-0 run.

Starlites managed their only hoop very late in the period as the two sides went into the interval with Mellieha enjoying a heavy 35-9 advantage.

After the break, Starlites did react to Mellieha’s next points but they fell prey once more to a 10-0 Mellieha run as Aquilina was dominant in the paint. Late points by Aaron Cutajar hiked up the Starlites score a little but they were still far behind on an adverse 16-49 score.

The last session was nearly a carbon copy of the second one with Starlites suffering once more at the Mellieha boys’ hands. This time it was a 16-0 run shared between five players. Again Starlites made a late hoop by Quinton Bugeja with Robert Loporto netting the last basket of the encounter for Mellieha.

Starlites: A. Barthet, M. Azzopardi 3, L. Vella 2, C. Doublet 2, M. Schembri, I. Pace, A. Cardona Vella, A. Xuereb, A. Cutajar 4, Q. Bugeja 2, A. Cutajar 3. M. Farrugia 2 Mellieha: R. Polis 6, M. Farrugia, R. Loporto 13, J. Muscat, C. Grixti 6, I. Terribile 8, B. Aquilina 13, D. Miani, J. Vibe 9, B. Soler 4, I. Curmi Referees: I. Marjanovic, D. Scafidi