Starlites in control, after opening scare

Starlites GIG 62

Caffe Moak Luxol 50

(12-12, 16-5, 21-18, 13-15)

Starlites collected their second honour of the season after the Independence Cup beating the champions for the fourth time in the process this season.

Starlites were well marshalled by their Spanish player Patricia Arguello. Their points were also well distributed with Michela Zammit Cordina coming off the bench and catching the eye with some polished play. Hibs’ American Amelia Simmons was well marked but she still managed to end up as the game’s top scorer.

It was the champions storming out after Starlites’ opening hoop for a 12-2 run. Starlites pulled themselves back as Kirsty Galea sank a triple and her side then made up 102 run till the end of the session for a drawn score.

In the next period it was Christine Curmi who netted a Starlites trey and her side began edging away from their opponents with Arguello also putting in a triple.

There was no Hibs answer and at the halfway stage it was Starlites on a 28-17 advantage.

After the break, Hibs were falling further behind as Starlites kept on this time with an early 10-2 run and two more Arguello triples. Hibs’ skipper Elena Cassar stopped her adversaries with her trey and the champions struck a good patch of play.

Their 9-2 run began to push them towards contention but Starlites managed a 7-0 run with a Zammit Cordina trey for a 49-35 comfortable lead for Starlites.

In the last session, Starlites made doubly sure beginning with more points to go way out in front. Hibs finally began answering back and Sam Brincat sank a trey but the damage had already been done. The two sides then shared the play for the remainder of the encounter with Starlites having their minds at rest as regards the outcome of the match.

After the final, MBA President Paul Sultana presented the Starlites skipper Samantha Farrugia with the winning trophy in their first ever final appearance in this competition.

Starlites: M. Zammit Cordina 11, K. Galea 9, A. Micallef , S. Farrugia 2, M. Bonett 8, H. Acreman 2, C. Curmi 6, J. Grima 3, P. Arguello 14, M. Cutajar 4, S. Davies, A. Lupo 3

Hibs: E. Micallef , E. Cassar 7, K. Caruana, S. Brincat 7, I. Agius 2, J. Abela, S. Abela 4, A. Simmons 22, N. Farrugia, H. Al Tumi, M. Said, L. Duncan 8

Referees: K. Dworniczak, N. Azzopardi, M. Hraisha