Nina-Jo Buttigieg, (photo) a Maltese girl currently living in Belgium, was selected to represent the Vlaams Brabant region in the annual under-14 Inter-Provinciale Competitie (IPC).

The IPC is held between the five Flemish speaking provinces forming part of the Vlaams Basketball Liga (VBL) and took place in January. The tournament, which was held in Hulshout, was for girls born in 1998.

The IPC is a keenly fought competition where many players hope to impress in order to be selected for the specialised “Topsport” schools in Belgium.

This year the Vlaams Brabant section opted to go for a very young team in preparation for next year’s tournament and nine of the 12 girls selected were born in 1999 or younger with Buttigieg being one of these.

Due to this, the Vlaams Brabant team often suffered pressing defences by physically stronger teams; so the playmakers were made to work very hard in all four games.

Nina-Jo, who has only been playing competitive basketball for 2 1/2 years, averaged just over 27 minutes per game despite starting on the bench on the first day of the tournament. She eventually went on to form part of the starting five at the start of the second day of play.

Buttigieg is looking forward to using the experience she gained during this weekend when playing with her club Dames Leuven Basketball in the under-14 league.

Nina-Jo was one of 50 girls invited to take part in a three-day camp held by the Flemish Basketball Association. Each Flemish province was asked to invite 10 girls born in 1999 to take part.

The camp includes some of the top Junior coaches in Belgium.