Last match of year ends Luxol’s way

The two sides had not met each other this season leaving it till the end of the year. Luxol emerged victorious for their second league victory in three matches and Depiro were suffering their second league defeat in a row.

The Violets opened up their advantage late in the opening session and never looked back. Depiro did go close at the start of the last quarter but Luxol eased away once more to finish on a comfortable note as their players all put down their names on the scoresheet.

The lead changed hands five times in the first period as William Ahlberg netted the only triple for Luxol in this session. Depiro’s slim lead with Dominic Scafidi points in the latter stages was overturned as the champions made up an 8-0 session ending run to forge in front.

In the second session, Luxol began with a 11-1 run and a JP Schembri trey. Then the triples began to roll in at both ends with Nikola Vasovic and twice Ahlberg netting theirs for Luxol and Andrew Aquilina and Scafidi replying for Depiro. At the interval the champions were enjoying a 4023 advantage.

After the break, Depiro started in earnest with an 8-0 run and two more Scafidi triples. Vasovic netted his trey for Luxol but Nicholas Grech also sank a Depiro trey. Luxol had Ahlberg and CJ Cordina with more triples and Scafidi kept on with his long shots. Cordina nailed a late trey for Luxol who were on a 59-46 lead.

The last period had Depiro making an extra effort and putting in a 10-2 run with David Bugeja points and another Grech triple as they crept quite close to their opponents.

It was then Luxol to make up a steady 13-3 run with Cordina and Schembri treys as Aquilina netted his second triple for Depiro.

Luxol had established the lead they wanted to control the rest of the encounter. Bugeja sank the game’s last trey for Depiro with the champions holding enough of a lead which they added on with the game’s last points for a better finish.

Depiro: E. Briffa, D. Bugeja 17, L. Duckinson, A. Aquilina 8, N. Grech 6, A. Attard, M. Mallia , K. Xuereb 6, M. Borg , D. Scafidi 28

Luxol: CJ Cordina 10, M. Sjoberg 1, N. Vasovic 15, JP Schembri 10, K. Dimech 4, W. Ahlberg 19, K. Meye 20, A. Micallef Trigona 1, S. Cappello 2

Referees: B. Vassallo, E. Mangani, I. Simic