The BOV League Game-Day 7 resulted in interesting encounters where BUPA Luxol managed to register their first league win and now are a game behind Depiro in the standings while league leaders Gżira Athleta suffered their first league defeat when they were beaten by Hibs. The Paolites now jumped to the second spot in the standings with three wins albeit with a game more than Starlites, who were not in action this week.
DEPIRO 86
BUPA LUXOL 89
(20-9, 14-26, 22-25, 30-29)
The new year brought fresh hopes for BUPA Luxol to reach the season-ending play-off stage as they managed to register their first league win after five games.
These two sides presented respective new import players who joined their ranks during the January transfer window. Incidentally these two US import players are both from Louisiana.
Luxol included the towering 211cm William Claiborne. This 23-year-old centre, native of Slidell in the state of Louisiana played, until last season, in the NAIA Division 1 with the Louisiana Alexendria Generals.
His debut for the Violets was a massive one, points-wise, as Claiborne netted more than half of his side’s point tally ending with 46 points with the majority of hoops being close range under the basket conclusions.
Luxol were missing their top scoring Serb Vukasin Jandric but were boosted by the return of Slavko Opojevlic.
On the other hand, Depiro bolstered their squad with the arrival of their second American import, Cordarius Alvarez Johnson, joining the high-scoring Quin Cooper and Czech utility player Adam Chomo.
The 28-year-old Johnson, standing at 198cm, hails also from Louisiana State being born in Shreveport and played NCAA college ball until 2014 with Louisiana Tech and since then, also had two one-month contracts in the G-League. He started out in a quiet manner versus Luxol but gradually showed more confident play and may increase in his performances in the coming weeks.
The first quarter witnessed superior play by Depiro, shorn of the services of Kurt Xuereb and Miguel Brincat, as they opened a double digit lead, 20-9, after the opening 10 minutes with Cooper immediately finding his range whilst Chomo had a brace of mid-range shots and Nicholas Grech banged in two three balls.
A ten-point streak in three minutes, with Claiborne notching three of the buckets while Keith Dimech and Jean Paul Schembri adding a respective hoop, helped Luxol to reopen the game and although Depiro twice managed to momentarily open a slender lead, the Violets managed to stay well in touch and three Claiborne baskets made it a tight 35-34 game at the interval.
Points somewhat increased at both ends in the second half. The third quarter was a very balanced affair with Luxol first extending their lead to four points but when Johnson assisted Cooper as he started freeing himself well for buckets, Depiro also managed to momentarily retake the lead.
Two late treys from young Juan Cefai proved beneficial for Luxol to pip their opponents 60-56 with ten minutes to go.
The Mtarfa side opened strongly in the final rubber and Cooper, Johnson and Omar Said, who shortly afterwards had to leave court injured, combined well and moved Depiro to a 70-65 lead with five minutes to go.
A Luxol timeout helped them to reply immediately with Opojevlic and Cefai shooting from long- range but it was an open game as treys from Johnson helped Depiro to maintain a marginal 80-79 lead with two rotations of the clock to the end.
Here, Luxol made an important run as they outscored their opponents 8-2 in the next 90 seconds and with time running out, Depiro tried desperately to save
the game but two late Dimech free throws ascertained Luxol’s first league success.
Depiro: C. Johnson 17, Q. Cooper 27, J. Attard, D. Farrugia 2, N. Grech 7, O. Said 7, M. Borg 3, A, Chomo 19, A. Attard 4.
Luxol: J. Cefai 11, N. Andrejevic, K. Gauci, E. Caruana Montaldo, F. Mifsud Bonnici 6, J.P. Schembri 4, K. Dimech 14, I. Pace, L. Trapani,W. Claiborne 46, S. Opojevlic 7, S. Cappello 1.
Referees: B. Vassallo, L. Camilleri, S. Tafilica.
Hibernians 87
Gżira Athleta 74
(20-12, 24-24, 22-18, 21-20)
A solid, sound start by Hibs influenced this encounter which witnessed Gżira Athleta’s first league defeat after five straight wins whilst the Paolites are now two games behind the league leaders with a 3/3 record.
The first six minutes of play had Hibs keeping Gżira totally at bay as they opened a surprising 16-0 lead with 10 of the points shared between their American tandem Chandler Rowe and John Hardy whilst David Bugeja and Nicola Vasovic had three points apiece.
Ian Theisen, with two hoops, finally managed to break Athleta’s duck followed by an and-one play by Connell Crossland but it was still Hibs who enjoyed the lead by the end of the first quarter, 20-12.
Athleta produced a strong reaction midway in the second quarter with a 14-4 streak with Matthew Gouder notching ten of these points so that the game was tied at 29-29.
In the next three minutes Rowe set off a Hibs 13-0 run with two hoops followed by a trey and although Athleta did recover some lost ground, there were eight points separating the two sides at half time, 44-36.
The game was far from over as Athleta, who had Milos Novakovic missing, produced better offensive plays after the interval and Crossland, Theisen and Gouder made it 47-50 midway in the third quarter.
Once again, the Paolites had a small run, this time set off by Hardy, and then late treys from the latter and Vasovic helped Hibs to a double-digit lead, 66-54, with one quarter to go. The same players had similar three balls at the start of the fourth rubber to open a 72-56 lead.
Pressure was now on Athleta and the latter tried their best to neutralise the deficit and even notched some long range shots but Hibs always managed to have a reply at the other end so as to maintain a double-digit margin and end up with their third league win at the final buzzer.
Hibs: J. Hardy 18, P. Attard, D. Bugeja 9, K. Caruana, L. Farrugia 5, I. Bonett, N. Vasovic 18, A. Axiaq 4, M. Matijevic 6, M. Attard, C. Rowe 25, I. Demcesen 2.
Gżira Athleta: C. Crossland 25, E. Sciberras, P. Shoults 6, L. Stefanovic, S. Galea, N. Xuereb, M. Gouder 24, I. Thiesen 17, E. Abela, R. Abela, S. Pace 2.
Referees: B. Vassallo, K. Dworniczak, L. Camilleri.
Standings
Gżira Athleta (5-1) 11; Hibernians (3-3) 9; Starlites GiG (3-2) 8; Depiro (2-4) 8; BUPA Luxol (1-4) 6.