Champions A-Z Electronics Athleta secured the first honour of the season after beating rivals BUPA Luxol in the tournament marking the 50th anniversary of the Malta Basketball Association.
The six participating teams were pitted into two groups with Floriana Café Del Mar, PAVI Depiro and A-Z Electronics Athleta in Group A.
Floriana finished top of their group after wins over Athleta 48-42 and Depiro 53-36. Athleta also progressed to the semi-finals thanks to their 67-40 victory over Depiro.
Group B was won by league newcomers Virtus who defeated BUPA Luxol 69-58 and Remax Siġġiewi 48-42.
Luxol’s 81-40 victory over Siġġiewi was enough to earn them a last-four spot.
In the semi-finals, Luxol had the better of Floriana 64-59 while Athleta ended Virtus’s run after beating them 58-42.
Bupa Luxol 56
A-Z Electronics Athleta 63
(32-31, 24-32)
The final was played over two sessions of 15 minutes each.
Athleta only had three players from last season’s squad, namely captain Michael Naudi, playmaker Omar Said and foreigner Chad Patus as David Bugeja and Shawn Pace left to join Virtus. Steve Schembri has called it a day.
Roderick Vella, Andrew Aquilina and Isaac Tanti, who played for Depiro last season, are now donning the Athleta colours.
After losing captain Marco Mercieca and forward Nikola Vasovic to Floriana, Luxol engaged the services of Abraham Portelli, formerly of Depiro, and American Orlando Ruthledge as their new foreigner.
Luxol were without new signing Alan Borg (ex-Siġġiewi) who was suspended after being sent off in the semi-finals.
It was Luxol who made the better start and they opened a 10-2 lead.
Gradually, Athleta improved to share the exchanges as Luxol had to substitute tall pivot Samuel Deguara, who was on three fouls.
Nevertheless, Luxol still managed to increase their lead to 13 points, 29-16, after the 10th minute.
A time-out helped Athleta to re-organise their ranks.
Athleta began to turn the ball around better in attack and their aggressive defence allowed them to recover several possessions as they narrowed the gap.
With four seconds left before half-time, Said’s three-pointer moved Athleta within a point of Luxol, 32-31.
Athleta continued where they left off after the interval and led 40-34 after the third minute. Hard as they tried, Luxol could not recover until the 10th minute when they trimmed Athleta’s seven-point gap, 44-37, to a single basket 52-50.
Luxol’s fightback did not last long though. In fact, their hopes were dashed in the last 30 seconds when they twice lost possession through careless passing.
Despite losing playmaker Roderick Vella, who had been a tough client for Luxol’s individual defence, to injury, Athleta controlled their lead without difficulty.
Luxol: C.J. Cordina 11, A. Portelli 1, J. Willoughby, J.P. Schembri 2, N. Andrejevic, J.P. Bonnici 2, O. Ruthledge 20, A. Micallef Trigona, S. Deguara 20, S. Capello.
A-Z Athleta: M. Naudi 6, R. Vella 13, A. Aquilina 8, C. Patus 14, O. Said 12, M. Gouder, I. Tanti 10.
Referees: B. Vassallo, G. Barbara , C. Terribile.
Next fixture
Sunday: St James Hospital Super Cup (men) 16.30 Athleta vs Depiro.