Cynergi Virtus and Hibernians are the winners of the inaugural Independence Cup tournament, held at the Ta’ Qali Pavilion last weekend.

A total of 21 games were played in the pre-season competition which began on Saturday and came to a close on Monday.

Six teams entered the men’s tournament, with Cynergi Virtus, PAVI Depiro and BUPA Luxol in Pool 1 while Gżira Athleta, Floriana Cafè Del Mar and newcomers Hibernians were in Pool 2.

Cynergi Virtus signalled their intent from the off as they won their matches against BUPA Luxol (58-37) and Pavi Depiro (54-36) to book their place in the semi-finals.

Depiro also made it to the last four after seeing off Luxol 53-47.

Floriana topped the second group following victories over Hibernians (66-43) and Gżira Athleta (54-44). Gżira Athleta had narrowly beaten Hibs, 56-54, to secure the last semi-final berth.

In the first semi-final, Virtus faced Athleta who have revamped their squad from last season.

Joe Galea’s team is mainly made up of the club’s U-23 players along with new signings Adrian Micallef and American Markus Montague.

Virtus have retained the core of players who won the cham-pionship last season with the exception of Anton Axiaq, who has joined Floriana, and Mike Breu-sewitz who has been replaced by Chris Santo.

They have also signed Maltese-Australian player Jacob Formosa.

Virtus, coached by Paul Ferrante, defeated Athleta 57-40 to make sure of their place in the final.

Floriana and Depiro contested the second semi-final.

With Chad Patus in their ranks, Floriana opened a four-point lead over a young Depiro side, managed by Brian Mifsud.

The Greens kept control of proceedings after the interval to seal a 57-42 victory.

The men’s final turned out to be a tight and exciting affair as Virtus, inspired by Santo, went in for the interval 21-19 ahead.

In the second half, Virtus increased their advantage to eight points, 31-23, by the fifth minute.

Here, Floriana called a time-out and when play resumed, they went on an 11-2 run to lead 34-33.

Vital three-pointer

The two teams remained neck-and-neck but in the end, it was a Robert Bonnici three-pointer that made the difference as Virtus won the match 48-45.

The women’s tournament, played on a round-robin format, was between five teams who had no foreign players in their ranks following a decision by the clubs.

The tournament was con-tested by Hibs, Caffè Moak Luxol, now under the guidance of coach Charles Bonnici, Gżira Athleta, Pavi Depiro and Starlites Naxxar.

After the first results, it was clear that the game between Luxol and Hibs was going to be decisive.

Hibs, now under coach Alex Farrugia, signed Josephine Grima this summer after the Malta pivot returned home following a 10-year spell in overseas leagues.

The Paolites easily dismissed PAVI Depiro 54-19 and then eased past Starlites 57-12.

Luxol, on their part, opened with a 48-26 win over Athleta before having the better of Starlites 65-14.

Hibs and Luxol went head-to-head in the third fixture and here the Paolites produced a great defensive performance to prevail 34-22.

Hibs made it four wins out of four after defeating Athleta 42-27 to secure the title while Luxol placed second after beating Depiro 47-31.

At the end of the competition, Simon Busuttil, the Leader of the Nationalist Party, presented the trophies to the winning captains – Elena Cassar for Hibs and Peter Shoults for Virtus.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.