The latest addition in the roll of honours of the Malta Basketball Association is the Louis Borg Cup. This competition originated in 2000 by Louis Borg, former president of the MBA and now the President Emeritus.

The Louis Borg Cup was original in its format since for the first time games were being played over two legs thus allowing that a game could end with a tied score without the need of going for extra time.

The history of this cup is quite interesting especially during the first years. The original rules of the competition, in fact, used to oblige the clubs to field players from their youth category. Sometimes this was not understood enough by the clubs and some of the games were even decided after protests which were being raised especially by the losing team.

Nowadays the rules of the competition changed a bit although the competition still features a two-game final. However the rule of the youth players was abolished by the clubs during an executive council some years ago.

The men’s competition already sees four different clubs as winners. The first two editions were in fact won by Pembroke and the 2002 the cup was won by Hamrun Liberty for their first and only success in this competition. I

n the year 2003 Luxol won the Louis Borg Cup for the first time in their history followed by Siggiewi in 2004. Pembroke won the competition for three consecutive years from 2005 to 2007. Luxol won the 2008 edition followed by Sliema in 2009 while Siggiewi returned to winning ways in this competition last year.

This year’s final will be played between holders Siggiewi Derby and A to Z Electronics Athleta. Siggiewi won the semifinal against Loyola 77-67. Athleta had to beat Luxol in the Preliminary Round 90-49 and then Depiro in the semifinal 77-53.

Game 1 was played on Thursday and Siggiewi just managed to take a four-point lead. The second is being played today at 3.45pm.