Fourth straight league victory for Athleta

Gzira Athleta 62 Siggiewi St. Nicholas 49 (17-10, 23-16, 10-9, 12-14)

Athleta kept on their winning streak obtaining their fourth consecutive league victory, this time against Siggiewi.

The main difference between the two sides and against all the other sides for that matter is Athleta’s versatile American player Kwame Thompson who is a luxury for this category of play.

In every match that Athleta played it was his points which separated his side from their adversaries. For this match Athleta recovered Stefan Vincic. Siggiewi had Jean Paul Antoncic and Jonathan Camilleri missing but introduced a new foreigner, the Greek Konstantin Arvanitekis, a robust player who is not averse to mixing it in the paint. Two of their players also stayed on the bench for the duration of the match Roberto Alosco and Reno Camilleri.

Athleta’s opening two hoops had Siggiewi with a ready reply to go 6-4 ahead. Athleta began to take control making up an 8-0 run as Thompson’s hoops began to fall in. There was a reaction from Siggiewi but Stefan Vincic sank a last second triple to increase Athleta’s advantage.

In the next period, both sides upped their tempo but Athleta always seemed in control. Siggiewi managed an 8-2 run mainly from free throws but Athleta came up with a couple of treys from Thompson and Vincic as their lead kept on increasing till the interval when Siggiewi had fallen 26-40 behind.

After the break, Siggiewi’s initial spurt faded away as Athleta again found means to neutralise their opponents. A late Siggiewi thrust had Thompson rallying his side with another triple for a heavy 50-35 advantage.

Athleta kept on in thefianl session putting in a 7-2 run with a Luca Stefanovic trey. Siggiewi made a determined effort which had them making up a good 120 run from Arvanitekis and Slavko Opejevlic but they couldn’t get near enough with late Thompson points again opening up Athleta’s advantage.

J. Symmons, F. Mifsud Bonnici 6, J. Wait 2, J. Aquilina 6, L. Stefanovic 5, M. Gauci Montaldo 2, M. Giusti 4, K. Thompson 28, N. Petrucci, S. Vincic 7, M. Cilia 2, D. Buhagiar

L. Grech 4, K., Scicluna 6, N. Xuereb, H. Agius 14, G. Agius 6, R. Alosco, S. Opojevlic 7, R. Camilleri 2, Re. Camilleri, K. Arvanitekis 10

S. Micallef, I. Marjanovic