Holders Hibernians and Depiro will battle it out for the BOV Knock Out trophy on Sunday in what promises to be a fascinating battle between two teams who are desperate to win the accolade for different reasons.

On one hand, Hibernians are looking to lift their second honour of the season after their Super Cup triumph and are still on course to retain their league title and are battling against Starlites for top spot at the end of the regular season.

Depiro, on the other hand, are still in search of their first piece of silverware of the season and are looking at the KO final as a perfect opportunity to make up for their disappointment of missing out on a place in the BOV League play-offs.

“For us the BOV KO final is a very important match for us,” Anthony Cassar, a committee member of Hibernians BC.

“Our goal this season is to win as many honours as possible and while our main focus is to win the league championship, retaining the KO trophy is of paramount importance for us as it will surely be a great way to prepare for a title run in.

“I expect a very tight final but I am confident that our team is more than capable of coming out on top.”

Hibernians skipper Roderick Vella said that there is great determination in his team’s dressing room to keep the KO trophy at the club for a third successive season and is banking on his team’s solid chemistry to prevail over Depiro.

“Our team hasn’t changed much from the one that won the title last season, with the exception of Ivan Demcesen, so our team chemistry has been established from several months ago,” Vella said.

“For the last two weeks we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this final as we were focused on our delicate top-of-the-table clash against Starlites. But as from this week, we have been fully focused on this final.

“It will not be an easy game as it’s not easy for us to contend with Depiro’s athleticism and physical play. But we have a squad full of players that know what it takes to win trophies and I’m confident that we can carry out the job successfully.”

Depiro may have struggled to book a place in the promotion play-offs but they have shown time and again this season that they could upset better-quoted opponents.

They gave proof of their quality in their semi-final against Athleta when they managed to claw themselves back into the match after trailing by 20 points.

“Our comeback against Athleta has shown the character and determination of our team,” Depiro guard Omar Said said.

“In that semi-final we showed great heart to reach the final and on Sunday we need to be ready to battle once more. For us this is the most important match of the season and maybe it’s true that we don’t have many players who have experience of playing finals but we have the hunger and determination to bring the trophy back to our club.”

Julian Naudi, who is in his first season in charge at Depiro, said that for his team this was their biggest match of the season after missing out on the play-offs.

“Obviously missing out on the play-offs is a huge disappointment for us as we played some very good matches this season and I feel that we deserved more,” Said said.

“No doubt that we deserve to win an honour this season and I can guarantee you that my players will go out on Sunday raring to end our campaign on the right note.”

Also present during yesterday’s news conference was Paul Sultana, president of the Malta Basketball Association, and Peter Perotti, Chief Officer at BOV.

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