Athleta manage a century victory

Basketball - Men Div I

Starlites Naxxar 69 Gzira Athleta 102 (18-25, 14-27, 17-24, 20-26)

This game took some time to finish. It was originally started on 22nd January, but stopped at the interval, due to the damp conditions, which rendered the rest of the match unplayable. By that time Athleta had run up a solid 52-32 advantage, Michael Naudi, BillyZammit and Josiah Whitehead grabbed the points for Athleta, and Ivan Mitrovic, along with Alec Felice Pace made the points for Starlites. This was actually the first time that these two sides were playing against each other, this season.

When the match began again, for the completion of the last two periods of play, it was an open match,with a number of triples flying in. For Athleta Peter Shoults and David Camilleri netted three each, starting with Shoults' trio, and Camilleri netting his, till the end of the session. Starlites had Ivan Mitrovic sinking two, with Jacob Formosa following up with a brace more, as Athleta extended their advantage, to a 7649 score. In the last session Starlites were falling further behind, as Athleta, conceding three league defeats already, were venting their frustration against their adversaries. Their points total continued to grow steadily, as Shoults nailed another triple, and Naudi and Whitehead poured in more points. The century was reached with a Naudi trey, but Starlites made the better ending to the encounter, with a good 12-0 run, as Mitrovic took his total tally of triples to eight, with his last two of the match, even if Starlites were still trailing badly at the end.

The officiating trio had a complete change from the first part of the match, whichstarted with Gordon Barbara, Emanuel Mangani, who pulled amuscle,and stopped two minutes short of the interval, and Zvezdan Dobrosavljevic. In the rest of the match, from the interval onwards, there were Bernard Vassallo, Christine Farrugia and Stephen Micallef.

Starlites: I. Mitrovic 34, R. Carabott, L. Vella, A. Schembri 2, C. Schembri, M. Falzon 2, A. Felice Pace 10, N. Stankovic 6, J. Formosa 15, M. Vella, M. Farrugia, T. Grech

Athleta: M. Naudi 26, R. Vella 8, D. Camilleri 9, P. Shoults 21, F. Mifsud Bonnici, B. Zammit 10, S. Vincic 4, M. Gauci Montaldo, J. Whitehead 24

Referees: G. Barbara, E. Mangani, Z. Dobrosavljevic (Sessions 1 & 2) B. Vassallo, C. Farrugia, S. Micallef (Sessions 3& 4)