The two national Basketball teams moved further away from a possible podium finish after suffering defeats yesterday. The girls’ defeat, a massive one against hot favourites Montenegro, was an expected one, and arrived even though the girls gave a spirited fight.
However once again the men’s team performance left much to be desired. Once again Aaron and Tevin, practically potting half of the points, but something more was expected from our tallest two players Samuel Deguara and Kurt Cassar.
The men’s team suffered the second consecutive defeat going down against Luxembourg 79-94 (11-25, 19-20, 28-26, 21-23), considerably reducing the chances of going at least on the podium, having just match left to play against mighty Montenegro this evening.
As was the case against Iceland the previous the Maltese a disastrous first quarter in which Luxembourg built a 14-point lead, a lead which they practically kept till the end. In fact for the remaining three quarters the Maltese were on a par with their opponents but they simply could not bounce back like they did against Iceland.
Once again we had a low shooting performance, only 27 percent on three-pointers and around 38 percent on field goals. Aaron Falzon was again Malta’s top scorer with 19 points followed by Tevin Falzon with 17. Darren Falzon was in fact the best scorer of the match.
Malta: R. Vella, D. Bugeja 4, N. Kahler 3, C. Patus 10, P. Schoults 8, N. Xuereb 6, T. Falzon 17, A. Felice Pace, A. Falzon 19, K. Cassar 8, S. Deguara 4
The Maltese girls could do little more against Montenegro, going down 86-40 (21-14, 18-11, 28-9, 17-6)
A De Martino three-pointer started the proceedings and with Malta opening a five-point lead. Montenegro however quickly recovered and took the lead. But the girls were in the game with Simmons winning many rebounds, but missing some shots at goal too. Montenegro closed the first quarter 21-14 in front.
In the second quarter Montenegro continued to improve with the Maltese girls unable to reduce the gap. The girls tried their best but Montenegro had something more increasing the gap to 39-25 by the half way.
After the break the Maltese faded out gradually and Montenegro potted at will to increase the lead to 33 points at the end of the third quarter, even reaching a massive 46 points by the end of the match.
Malta: S. De Martino 8, A. Van Vliet 10, A. Arguello 9, A. Simmons 6, S. Abela 3, S. Pace, K. Galea, S. Brincat, M. Bonett, M. Borg, G. Mifsud 2, C. Curmi 2.