Defeated the Lawyers and moving up: Municipality of Nicosia

The Municipality of Nicosia recorded its second win of the season and first in the Second Phase last night, as they defeated the Nicosia Bar Association in Egkomi by 74–52, climbing (at least temporarily) to the top of the standings in the Bronze Division.

The game, which opened the 2nd round, started very differently from what the final score suggests. Despite the large winning margin for the hosts, the first half was closely contested, with the two teams going side by side throughout, ending 28–28 at halftime.

The decisive moment that tipped the balance in favor of the hosts came at the start of the second half, when the Municipality of Nicosia team, guided from the bench by Igor Gavrilovic, significantly increased their offensive output, stepped on the gas and pulled away.

The safe +14 lead (57–43) at the end of the third quarter not only remained intact in the fourth, but grew even larger, with the final 74–52 reflecting a comfortable victory for the home side. Another positive for the winners was their dominant rebounding advantage (54 vs 28), despite playing without their starting center, Marios Menoikou.

Nikolas Konstantinou’s team had the important mitigating factor of competing without two of their key players (Tsakonas and Lambidis), which resulted in them running out of energy and offensive options as the game progressed.

All seven players who took the floor for the Municipality of Nicosia scored, with Iordanis Aloupa and Giorgos Liolis standing out with 23 and 17 points respectively. For the Lawyers, Dimitris Theodorou led the offense with 22 points, followed by Charalambos Stefanou with 10.