The Maltese girls defeated Cyprus yesterday 75-49 (9-12, 20-7, 28-20, 18-10) to keep their hopes of a bronze medal alive. In fact in a later match Luxembourg were beaten by favourites Montenegro and now Malta and Luxembourg are equal on points and with only today’s direct clash to be played, with Malta needing the victory to make sure of finishing on the podium

The ladies team gave another good display yesterday, suffering only in the first quarter but in the second quarter the Maltese turned the tide in their favour and never looked back dominating the other quarters to finish the game with a 28-point victory.

Amelia Simmons was our best scorer with 19 points, followed by Sophie Abela with 14 and by Van Vliet with 13 points.

Malta: Amelia Simmons 19, Sophie Abela 14, Ashleigh Van Vliet 13, Samantha Brincat 7, Steffi De Martino 7, Patricia Arguello 7, Maria Bonett 4, Gabriella Mifsud 2, Christina Curmi 2, Sarah Pace, Kristy Galea, Maddison Borg.

The men’s team ended their commitments with arguably one of their best performance, but they still ended on the loser’s side against gold medal favourites Montenegro. Malta held the pace in the first quarter with only a two-point deficit.

In the second quarter Monetenegro had their best patch winning the fraction 27-16. Malta won the third quarter by four points, but this partial lead was cancelled out by Montenegro in the fourth quarter to win the match 97-84 (23-21, 27-16, 22-26, 25-21).

The Falzon brothers were once again Malta’s scorers, this time Tevin having the better with 25 points against Aaron’s 20.

Malta: Tevin Falzon 25, Aaron Falzon 20, Chad Patus 15, Kurt Cassar 13, Samuel Deguara 6, Matthew Gouder 3, David Bugeja 2, Roderick Vella, Nelson Kahler, Peter Shoults, Nathan Xuereb, Alec Felice Pace.