Maltese girl makes Flemish region selection

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

The IPC is played between the five Flemish-speaking provinces forming part of the Vlaams Basketball Liga (VBL) and took place in Hulshout last month.

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 in squad, including Buttigieg, were born in 1999 or younger.

Because of this, the Vlaams Brabant girls often suffered pressing defences by physically stronger teams.

Buttigieg, who plays for Dames Leuven Basket, 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.

Meanwhile, Buttigieg was one of 50 girls invited to take part in a three-day camp held by the Flemish Basketball Association.