Women's team lose again but Coppa still hopeful of a medal

Malta 50
Iceland 88
(13-19, 14-28, 8-21, 15-20)

The Malta women's basketball team conceded a second consecutive defeat in the round-robin tournament when yesterday they bowed to a superior Iceland side 88-50.

Santino Coppa's girls, who had suffered another comprehensive 63-37 defeat to Luxembourg on Tuesday, again found the going tough and now their only hope is to beat hosts Andorra today.

This match has become a play-off for third place in the round-robin group of four teams. Malta were gold medal winners two years ago.

At half-time, Iceland, who trounced Andorra 71-29 on Tuesday, were already enjoying a 20-point advantage over Malta - 47-27.

When play resumed, the Maltese tried to get back into the match but it was Iceland who increased their advantage to 23 points at the start of the final session, 68-35.

The game was by now already won and lost and Iceland, who play Luxembourg today, easily controlled proceedings to run out comfortable winners. Josephine Grima was the game's leading scorer with 26 points.

After the match, Coppa conceded that he knew Iceland were going to be a difficult hurdle to clear for the Maltese.

However, he still has not lost hope of winning a bronze medal.

"We knew that Iceland were a much stronger side," he said.

"I had said from the start of this tournament that having such a young and inexperienced team it was going to be difficult for us against both Luxembourg and Iceland.

"Andorra are our next opponents and I sincerely believe that despite our poor show so far we have a good chance of beating the host country and win a bronze medal.

"Today the team showed remarkable improvement from the first match. Hopefully against Andorra we will be in a position to challenge for a win that could lift our spirits."