Bupa Luxol     80     Hibernians     67

(20-17, 15-15, 24-16, 21-19)

Agg. 141-146

It was deemed to be a foregone conclusion, after the strong Hibs victory, in the first final, but it was anything but so. Luxol produced a heroic performance, to cancel all of their hefty deficit, and even managed to forge ahead, on aggregate, in the last quarter. Hibs just dug their heels in, and came up with a notable reaction, to take the honour at the first time of asking, winning by a five-point margin, and leaving the champions to bemoan their performance in the first final. Luxol also left out Nikola Vasovic for the major part of the match, but when they were foul hit, and lost two players, they roped him in, for the last minutes of the game. A host of triples came up trumps in this second match, to make it a very exciting one, with the only flaw in it being, that somebody had to come away empty handed, after such a display from both sides.

The champions started with a JP Schembri trey, and went 5-1 ahead. Not content with that, they put in another 7-2 run, as Schembri nailed another triple. Luxol produced yet two more treys, from Keith Dimech and Kyle Meyer, but the Paolites has a strong ending to the session, with four of their long-range specials, by Simon Attard and Chaed Patus, who both netted twice. In the next period Luxol had to start again, with Dimech netting a brace of triples, along with more hoops, and Schembri sinking his third trey, but Hibs were up to the challenge, with Alvaro Lizaur sinking a triple, and hoops from Marco Matijevic and Anton Axiaq, as they kept the same distance away from their opponents. At the interval the champions were 35-32 in front.

After the break the triples were flowing in. CJ Cordina stamped his bubbling form, to net a couple of them, along with more obtained points. William Ahlberg also netted a couple of triples. The Paolites had Lizaur with two treys, and Patus added another one, but this time Hibs fell further behind, and were trailing 48-59. The last quarter had the Violets storming forward, making up a solid 9-2 run, which brought them level on aggregate. Attard sank a Hibs trey, but Ahlberg also netted a triple, and followed with another hoop, and the champions incredibly were in front. The Paolites found a talisman, as Farrugia nailed a side triple, and when Luxol tried for possession, Hibs converted their free throws, and opened up another aggregate lead. This time there was no coming back for the champions, as Hibs held on grimly, denying their opponents of another stab at going nearer.

After the match the MBA general secretary, Joseph Muscat, in lieu of Louis Borg, who was indisposed, presented the winning medals to the Hibs clan, and skipper, Marco Matijevic received the winning trophy, as the Paolites marked their name on this honour for the first time.

Luxol:  CJ Cordina 13, M. Sjoberg,  J. Melillo, N. Vasovic 2,  JP Schembri 14, K. Dimech 13, W. Ahlberg 20, K. Meyer 16, A. Micallef Trigona 2 

Hibs:  K. Sultana, L. Farrugia 9, S. Attard 9, I. Bonett, A. Axiaq 11, M. Matijevic 9, A. Lizaur 20, F. Mariani, C. Patus 9

Referees: N. Azzopardi, T. Mantere, I. Simic