Basketball: Women’s League Championship-Anse Etoile Stars complete hat-trick |10 November 2007
The Stars, with most of their players being Seychelles internationals and played on the
After losing their first-round match-up 43-45, it looked as if HotShots, who were on a roll and played some good basketball, would dethrone the Stars as champions.
The decider was played on Saturday September 29 and this time victory went to the Stars, putting an end to HotShots’ seven-game unbeaten run. The Stars needed to win by a three-point margin to have the edge over HotShots on the head-to-head rule and they did even better – getting a six-point win.
Seychelles international playmaker Lindy Mathiot got 14 points before fouling out to lead the Stars to a 53-47 win although HotShots had two players – centre Tina Agathine (game-high 18 points) and Seychelles forward Myra Solin (13 points) – scoring in double digits.
With just one loss in 12 games, the Stars, coached by Michel Malbrook, have finished the league with 23 points, the same total as HotShots, but the Anse Boileau-based team have to accept finishing second on the head-to-head rule.
Speaking to Sports Nation, Stars’ centre Simone Malbrook said that “the championship was not as tough as it looked. Had all our players been a 100% fit for the whole of the season, we would have won against HotShots in the first round and there would have been no need for us to wait for a second-round win against them to make sure of keeping the title. I’m sure we would have won the league with an unbeaten record. Training with the national team for the IOIG also disrupted the team’s (Anse Etoile Stars) play.”
The only consolation for HotShots in the league is that centre Tina Agathine, a member of the Seychelles volleyball team, scored a career-high and season-high 52 points in their team’s 101-7 win over Cadettes.
HotShots also have the Seychelles Basketball Federation (SBF) Cup title to defend and they stand a good chance of making the best-of-three final where they could have for opponents Anse Etoile Stars.
Stars’ centre Malbrook said that “we want to reclaim our SBF Cup title to achieve another League and Cup double.”
As fort HotShots’ lanky centre Agathine, she had this to say:
“All players on the HotShots team know and understand that we have to win the SBF Cup now that we have not been able to win the League title. We will be all out to defend the SBF Cup.”
G. G.