Armenia 65
Malta 74
(10-19, 13-17, 29-20, 13-18)
Malta became the first nation to successfully defend the title in the European Championship Division C yesterday when our national ladies' team had the better of Armenia 74-65 in the final in Yerevan.
Under the shrewd guidance of Italian coach Santino Coppa, the Maltese girls had to fight hard to preserve their narrow advantage over Armenia in a contest that could have gone either way after the hosts managed to get back into contention in the third quarter.
Leading 36-23 at half-time, Malta looked firmly on course to achieve another comfortable victory after the wins over Scotland (64-35), Wales (81-43) and Moldova (85-57) in previous rounds.
However, Armenia, inspired by American shooting guard Amanda Jackson who holds dual citizenship, hit back strongly after the break.
The hosts trimmed Malta's lead to just four points, 56-52, before the start of the final session.
Armenia had exerted a lot of energy to beat Scotland 86-63 in the semi-final on Friday but they showed no signs of tiredness as the last quarter got underway.
At one point, Armenia narrowed the gap to -3 (59-62) but after that the Maltese never looked back.
With Rebecca Brincat Thoresen shooting accurately from the free-throw line, Coppa's team kept their cool to win the match and retain the honour they won in Luxembourg in 2008.
Josephine Grima topped the scoring for Malta with 22 points yesterday. She also had 14 rebounds.
Since the biennial Women's European Championship Division C was first held 21 years ago, Austria won the title three times - in 1989, 1993 and 1998.
Iceland also won the championship twice (1996 and 2004). However, no nation had managed to claim back-to-back titles before Malta achieved that feat yesterday.
The triumph in Armenia is another glorious chapter in the successful history of the women's basketball team with Coppa as coach. The Italian also led the team to GSSE success besides automatic qualification to prestigious tournaments on the international scene like the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Scotland yesterday beat Moldova 88-67 in a play-off for third place.
Wales finished fifth in the overall standings ahead of Andorra and Gibraltar.
Men's tournament
Malta will host the men's Division C European Championship, starting tomorrow at the University Sports Complex
Malta will play in Group B along with San Marino, Scotland and Denmark. Group A is composed of Andorra, Moldova, Wales and Gibraltar.
Malta's first game is against San Marino tomorrow evening (20.15). The locals then face Denmark (Tuesday, 18.00) and Scotland (Wednesday, 18.00).
National coach Bruno Di Pietrantonio has selected the following players: Michael Naudi, Roderick Vella, Jean Paul Bonnici, David Bugeja, Steve Schembri, Dirk Schembri, Peter Shoults, Joshua Jackson, Adison Bonnici, Kristin Baldacchino, Nigel Sultana and Samuel Deguara.