Mellieha in fourth league victory

Mellieha’s win puts them on a par with their opponents when they both now have four victories and seven defeats.

It was also Mellieha’s third win in four matches over Marvels.

Marvels were missing Luke Azzopardi and Mellieha recovered Daniele Miani but had Ben Aquilina missing.

After Marvels’ opening hoop Mellieha had Michel Farrugia and Robert Loporto netting their triples.

Jonathan Ransley was still putting in his hoops for Marvels but at the other end there was Clint Grixti with three hoops in a row to give his side three small leads and Marvels tying the score each time.

In the next period, David Garcia came off the bench to met a brace of hoops for Marvels.

Mellieha were on level terms with Andres Toompere sinking a trey for Marvels. A 7-2 run had Mellieha in front and although they lost their lead a Loporto hoop and a last second Grixti triple from mid-court had Mellieha on a 29-25 advantage at the interval.

After the break, Andrew Morris went on court for Marvels and promptly netted a trey.

After a brace of Mellieha hoops Morris again sank another triple as Marvels kept pace with their opponents.

Mellieha managed to hold on to their advantage till the end of the session with Marvels chasing them all the way as Mellieha went 41-37 ahead into the last quarter.

Try as they might, Marvels just couldn’t make up the small leeway as their hoops were always replied to by the Mellieha side as Loporto continued to add to his tally.

A late spurt had Marvels going quite near but the last points of the encounter went to Mellieha as they made sure of the result with their free throws.

Marvels: K. Maruda 4, D. Massa, D. Pisani, R. Curmi, D. Debattista, A. Morris 8, D. Garcia 10, C. Briffa, J. Ransley 10, A. Toompere 5

Mellieha: C. Grixti 13, M. Farrugia 5, J. Vibe 3, R. Loporto 23, I. Terribile, D. Miani 3, S. Aquilina 2, J. Muscat, B. Soler 5

Referees: B. Sly, Z. Dobrosavljevic