Recap

Depiro secured an important victory in their fight for the playoffs on Sunday with a strong showing against Athleta.

With Ruben Baldacchino’s clan up to full speed after an inconsistent start, the Mtarfa side made the most out of absences from Athleta’s Dajuan Moorer and Luca Stefanovic as the Gzira side relied on their top scorer Malik Riddle for most of the points.

In fact, the American put up a 32 points-12 rebounds double-double on the day to lead the game’s scoring. At the other end, Depiro’s Kameron Rooks was the only other double-double finisher with 29 and 21 rebounds. Rooks’ teammate Cameron Cornelius followed with 19 points. At the same time, for Athleta, such absences allowed young player Andrei Bozanic to show his talents, finishing the game tied on 10 points with Piotr Stelmach with the pair hitting two and three triples respectively throughout the encounter.

Athleta guard Juan Garcia Cefai opened the day’s scoring with a swift layup before Rooks replied for Depiro with a close-range effort.

Depiro took their first lead with an Andrew Aquilina three-pointer but the Maroons put up a response immediately to keep the game in the balance and this became the story of the first half as the first buzzer saw the two teams separated by three points with Depiro in the lead.

Rooks hit first as the game restarted for the second quarter bagging full points from an and-one play. Riddle replied with a pair of made shots from the line as another similar set of minutes ensued. With Depiro the stronger-looking side on the court, they proved this by finishing 42-30 ahead by halftime. 

Depiro forward Nikola Bozovic opened the second half with a three-ball before Miguel Mallia made one of two freethrows in his first appearance in the game to extend Depiro’s lead to 16. At the other end, Rooks denied Theodoros Chatzimoysis twice to keep Athleta scoreless in the beginning of the third. 

Cornelius made it a 21-point game three minutes in as Athleta struggled to counter Depiro’s offence, conceding enough fouls to give their opponents the bonus.

It was a quarter dominated by blocks with Rooks and Galea stopping shots at one end of the court, and Riddle doing the same at the opposite end. Nevertheless, a pair of Bozanic triples brought Athleta back down to within 17 ahead of the final rubber.

Christos Kousidis’s Athleta needed an energetic start to the fourth quarter and they got one as Riddle powered through to bring the deficit down to 10 with six minutes to go. Depiro restarted their fire, however, forcing an Athleta timeout two minutes later.

With the final minute to go in the game, both coaches rotated their five on court as the affair looked a done deal, with Depiro taking a crucial victory at the final buzzer.