New foreign team grabs first honour

Balkan Fusion 60 Luxol 51 (19-11, 16-12, 13-10, 1218)

The MBA took the onus of introducing a side made up of foreign players - mostly from Serbia - to take part in this category. This team not only made it to the final but grabbed their first honour beating Luxol in the process.

The violets do not normally take part, but in the absence of the U/23 division they decided to give their youngsters more playing time. The Balkans had won Pool 1 with three straight victories and Luxol won Pool 2 with three wins and a defeat. The two sides then won their respective semis last Wednesday.

The Balkans came out in style making up an opening 13-2 run as Marcos Hernandez Nikola Stankovic and Zika Stankovic sank triples. Luxol began to find their feet and led by a Merlin Blazques trey they cut down on their arrears till the end of the session.

In the next period the Balkans again extended their advantage but the Violets responded with an 8-0 run and from Vukassin Jandric and Keith Dimech. Their four point deficit increased once more as the Balkans were in command till the end of the session with an Ivan Kumric triple and more Sergi Jorben points. At the interval the Balkans had gone on to lead 35-23.

After the break, it was Luxol with the better start putting in a 7-2 run all from Jandric and with another trey. Midway through the period the Balkans made up an 8-0 run and Luxol were again faced with a heavy deficit. Jorben nailed another trey and the Balkans were cruising on a 4833 advantage going into the last quarter.

Luxol made a strong effort and put in a solid 13-4 run to come back into contention. The Balkans held their lead but Ben Caruana Montaldo sank a Luxol trey as his side were four points adrift. The Balkans made sure in the last stages of the encounter making a number of free throws as Luxol tried to stop the score clock.

At the end of the match, the Balkans made merry with their small band of supporters as the MBA general secretary Joseph Muscat presented the Balkans skipper Zika Stankovic with the first honour of the season in this category.

Balkan: N. Radicevic 8, B. Ilic 3, I. Kumric 4, A. Perunicic 6, S. Jorben 16, Z. Stankovic 2, N. Bukva , V. Lekovic, N. Stankovic 13, M. Hernandez 8

Luxol: M. Blazquez 13, L. Caruana Montaldo , V. Jandric 21, K. Camilleri, B. Caruana Montaldo 3, P. Cefai , K. Dimech 12, C. Calleja , M. Sjoberg 2, J. Navarro, R. Falzon, M. Steenkamer Referees: B. Vassallo, B. Sly, J. Cole