Team hit by Brincat Thoresen’s withdrawal from GSSE squad
Coach Adamoli finalises women’s selection for the Games
[attach id="254817" size="medium"]The women’s basketball team will be without Rebecca Brincat Thoresen (right) for the GSSE 2013 tournament in Luxembourg. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]
The Maltese women’s basketball team will be without key player Rebecca Brincat Thoresen for this month’s Games of the Small States of Europe as coach Angela Adamoli yesterday finalised her list of players for the Luxembourg tournament.
Brincat Thoresen was expected to spearhead Malta’s challenge for a third gold medal in the Games after helping her club TSV 1880 Wasserburg to the German Bundesliga title this season.
However, the 35-year-old guard decided to pull out of the national team squad due to personal reasons.
“It’s a bitter blow for us to lose a player of Rebecca’s quality,” Joseph Muscat, the Malta Basketball Association general secretary, told The Sunday Times of Malta, yesterday.
“Rebecca has been a great asset to our national team but we fully support her decision and we hope to have her back soon for our future international commitments.”
Brincat Thoresen emerged as one of the leading players for the national team in recent years.
She quickly established herself in Santino Coppa’s team on their way to winning a GSSE gold medal in Cyprus in 2009 and also helped the team to another two gold medals and a bronze in the FIBA European Championships Division C.
Impressively, she was also voted as the Most Valuable Player in five international competitions for Malta.
Despite Brincat Thoresen’s withdrawal, Adamoli can still bank on a very talented group of players who, in the past weeks, have been training hard to secure a berth in the squad for Luxembourg.
US-based Ashleigh Vella is now expected to take a leading role in Brincat Thoresen’s absence.
The Maltese-Australian has been in great form for the Idaho State University Bengals team.
This month, the 6ft 1in forward became only the 15th player in the Idaho State University history to score 1,000 career points after potting 19 in a 64-55 win over Boise State.
Adamoli’s list includes two other players plying their trade away from Maltese shores – Josephine Grima (the captain) and Christine Grima.
Josephine Grima, who in the last few years was on the books of Priolo and Pomezia in Italy, and SKBD Rucon in Slovakia, has spent the past season in Sweden where she donned the colours of Visby.
Christine Grima is currently playing for Rainbow Catania and this season she helped the Sicilian club to reach the promotion play-offs which got underway this weekend.
A new face in the squad will be US-bornBrietta Thomas who played for Loyola in the national league this season.
The towering guard, eligible to wear the Maltese colours in the GSSE as she has been residing here for at least three years, has enjoyed a very positive campaign with Alyssa Ashley Loyola, finishing among the leading scorers in the women’s league.
The three players who failed to make the cut for Luxembourg were Antoinette Borg, Chantelle Mifsud and Greta Zarb.
According to the provisional programme issued by the Luxembourg GSSE organisers, Malta play their first match in the round-robin tournament on May 29 against Iceland at La Coque Arena.
The squad
B. Thomas, S. Brincat, J. Cardona, E. Cassar, C. Grima, J. Grima, S. Pace, L. Sciberras, A. Sciortino, A. Vella, B.L. Zammit, S. De Martino.