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 Hibernians edge Starlites in overtime to lift sixth men's MBA Shield (Photo: sportsdesk.com)
 Hibernians land second title after winning Louis Borg Cup (Photo: sportdesk.com.mt)  Starlites Fijo win Division One championship (Photo: Facebook) # Name HT Pos Age Nat Former Team 184.5 6'0.6''AVG. HEIGHT 22.3AVG. AGE 6IMPORTS 2NATIONALITIES Starlites Fijo win Division One championship - May 9, 2022 Starlites Basketball Club are the BOV Basketball First Division League champions for 2021-22. Starlites led the standings all the way to the play-off final, where they beat Melliea Libertas Spalding 3-0 in the best-of-five play-off final. Charles Azzopardi, Head CSR at Bank of Valletta, accompanied by Paul Sultana, President of the Malta Basketball Association presented the BOV Basketball First Division League Trophy to the new champions. Alec Felice Pace (178-PG-1998) was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Playoff Final and presented with a commemorative plaque. In a statement, Bank of Valletta said its support of Maltese Basketball can be traced back to the 1980s as part of the bank's active role within the community in which it operates as part of its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) commitment. Courtesy of: sportsdesk.com.mt Hibernians edge Starlites in overtime to lift sixth men's MBA Shield - Feb 12, 2022 jStarlites - Hibernians 84-93 The St James Hospital Shield had to be decided after overtime following an intense final between Starlites Naxxar and Hibernians where both finalists practically battled it out in a tit-for-tat manner all throughout most of the game. The lead alternated continuously with Starlites having, momentarily, a maximum seven point lead early in the second quarter only for Hibs to immediately come back at par. With the regular time buzzer finding the two sides locked at 75-75, five minutes of overtime were added on the game clock and here Hibs managed to close the game with a final 7-0 run. Winners of this honour in the initial four editions between 1987 and 1990, under the name of Paola Stars, and then again four years ago, Hibs thus made it six successes in the history of this competition which has so far been played on 31 occasions. The Paolites set off on a good note going 7-0 ahead after initial hoops from Christian Soderholm only for Jamiah Haynes (196-F, agency: GoEmpire Group) to reply shortly afterwards at the opposite end. 'This was a huge team win. So many guys contributed for us throughout the whole game,' Hibs power forward Soderholm said. 'It is always going to be an intense game when we play Starlites and today was no exception. It feels great to get the first cup win of the season, but now we have our sights set on the next trophies. We will continue to work and grow as a team until then. I would not want to be a part of any other club here in Malta, I am proud to be a part of Hibs.' A series of free throws helped Starlites to take the lead, albeit a marginal one and the first quarter closed at 20-19 after closing hoops from Myles Thomas (201-F-97, college: Tuskegee) and Alec Felice Pace (178-PG-98) for Naxxar whilst Mason Vires (180-PG-96, college: CSC, agency: One Motive Sports) and Ivan Demcesen (216-C-91) were on target for Hibs. The team concept was highlighted by Hibs' top point-getter Vires in his post-match comments. 'It was a great team win, at the end of the day we came together as a team when it mattered most. We have battled through adversity and had players banged up throughout the season. However, this is a testament to our team chemistry in that when we come together as one, we are able to compete with any team within the league,' Vires said. Two Thomas treys, out of his tally of six long-distance shots in this final, and free shots from Jacob Bates (196-F-98, college: Centre) moved Starlites 28-21 ahead but the lead changed hands four minutes later after three-balls from Soderholm and Keith Dimech (184-F-00). After the halftime interval, both sides alternated a series of mini-breaks thereby neutralising each other's attempts to forge ahead. In the fourth rubber, Hibs twice went four points in the lead, mainly through Soderholm and Demcesen but more treys from Thomas and hoops from Windom Haynes got Starlites back on track. Seconds from the end of regulation time, Demcesen made it 75-75 and Starlites missed in their last attempt so as to move on to overtime. The towering seven-foot Serb centre was also very happy after the game. 'It was a very difficult and demanding match and we had to fight hard for a deserved victory,' he said. 'We will celebrate this success but we also have more important matches waiting for us. We are training hard and we are ready for that.' Vires led Hibs to an early lead, 82-76, but three-balls from Starlites' skipper Felice Pace made it again an open game 84-86 with just over a minute to play. Matthew Attard notched an important trey and then Dimech ascertained Hibs' Shield success as time ran out for Starlites. MBA president Paul Sultana presented the winning trophy to Hibs' Anton Axiaq after the match as the Hibs clan celebrated this success. Courtesy of: sportsdesk.com.mt Hibernians land second title after winning Louis Borg Cup - Mar 22, 2022 Hibernians overcame Melliea Libertas' challenge in the final series of the Louis Borg Cup to win both ties played over 48 hours and thus landed their hands on this trophy for the second time in history after their initial Cup success four years ago in 2018. This was also Hibs' second seasonal honour after they had already raised the MBA Shield earlier this year. AGGREGATE SCORE HIBERNIANS 208 MELLIEHA LIBERTAS 154 Few envied Mellieha Libertas' task of trying to overturn a hefty 28-point deficit from the first game played two days before. Hibs made matters a bit worse for their opponents when they had a good start to this return match with treys from Mason Vires (180-PG-1996, college: CSC, agency: One Motive Sports), Christian Soderholm (198-F-1998, college: CMU), and Keith Dimech (184-F-2000), inside the first four minutes, placing the Paolites 13-4 ahead. Without a doubt, even if the aggregate margin was large, Melliea were also hoping for at least a win over the 40 minutes of regular time in this second game, possibly also in view for a psychological boost ahead of another final these two sides will be playing very imminently, namely the BOV knockout final on March 31. A series of hoops from Seldon and Wrighten not only neutralised points achieved at the other end through Demcesen but also overturned the score in Libertas' favour 21-19 by the end of the first quarter. Melliea managed to keep the lead for a good part of the second quarter as Seldon was quite on song even ending with a 40-point tally. A Peter Shoults (168-G-1985) and Christian Soderholm respective three-ball and points off Mason Vires and Axiaq in between helped Hibs to a lead-changing 10-0 run. Although Melliea resorted to two time-outs, the Paolites still continued to close off the half with a 45-37 advantage. The third rubber was a complete balance as the two sides shared 40 points in an equal manner. Bugeja and Keith Dimech led Hibs to 53-41 lead but Melliea were still well in the running when they replied with a 9-0 streak through Nikola Vasovic (180-PG-1992) and Seldon and this time it was Hibs who had to stop the tempo with a timeout. It was still a three-point game until eight minutes from time, 65-62, after a Miguel Falzon (172-PG-1997) and-one play for Mellieha. However, Hibs here made a decisive step to another win when they outscored their opponents 12-0 in the next three minutes with Demcesen grabbing three hoops. Melliea's reaction was somewhat sporadic at this point with Wrighten notching his side's last ten points whilst Hibernians continued more points mainly through their top scorer Mason Vires and the local duo Bugeja and Keith Dimech in the final minutes. At the end of the game, Mr Stephen Vella, accompanied by MBA president Paul Sultana, presented the medals to both sides as well as the winners' trophy to Hibs' captain Anton Axiaq. Courtesy of: sportsdesk.com.mt |
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