Ten teams battle for women’s basketball league title

KUALA LUMPUR: The fifth edition of the Malaysia Women Basketball League ( MWBL) will feature 10 teams, the most in its five-year history.

The league started with only six teams in 2014 until 2016, before a seventh team were added in 2017.

The matches will be played every weekend from Oct 20-Dec 9 at the Maba Stadium here.

Segamat BA will be back to defend their title, having won it in 2014 and 2015.

Joining them are NS Matrix, Supersports BC, Penang Stallions, KL Red Baron, Rever BC, Matrix Global School, Hatchers Sports Club and UiTM Selections. Hillcrest Grays BC will also add stiff competition as Singapore Basketball League Champions.

Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who is also patron of the league, said it was good that the MWBL was part and parcel of the Malaysian Basketball Association (Maba) calendar.

“The organising of the league must be to support the objectives of Maba and also to develop a strong national team, a strong national back- up team and a strong junior team,” said Saifuddin during the announcement of the tournament at Wisma Maba here yesterday.

Each team are allowed to have a maximum of four national players who have participated in the SEA Games and three foreign players, of which only two are allowed to be on the court at the same time.

The 10 teams will play in a round-robin format in the preliminary round. The top six teams will proceed to a playoff.

The preliminary round champions and first runner-up will automatically proceed to the semi-finals while the remaining teams will fight it out for the remaining two final four spots.

The preliminary round winners will receive a cash prize of RM5,000 while the season champions will earn RM10,000.