The Malta women’s team are in a good position to improve on the bronze medal they won in their last showing at the FIBA Championships for European Small States this weekend after reaching the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, being played in Gibraltar.

Malta coach Angela Adamoli will be urging her players to repeat the spirited performances and teamwork which propelled them to convincing group qualifying victories over Andorra (67-42) and Gibraltar (76-29) this week.

In the Gibraltar clash on Thursday, Steffi DeMartino and Christina Grima single-handedly outscored their opponents.

DeMartino was top scorer with 20 points as Grima potted 14 for Malta who had 10 players with at least two points on the scoreboard.

In today’s semi-finals, Malta play against the winners of the match-up between Moldova and Gibraltar. Ireland meet either Andorra or Wales.

In the men’s championship, being staged in Moldova, Malta will contest the 5-8th classification matches after managing one win from three matches in Group A.

On Thursday, Andrea Paccarie’s team beat Gibraltar 70-50 to avoid bottom place following defeats to San Marino (41-61) and Ireland (34-91) earlier in the week.

Today, Malta play against Wales who conceded three defeats in Group B – vs Andorra (33-74), Moldova (59-63) and Armenia (40-92). The other two teams in the bottom half of the tournament are Moldova and Gibraltar.

The two tournaments come to a close tomorrow with the finals and third-place play-offs.