Basketball: Women’s League Championship-Stars still shining |01 December 2007

This is because RA Sisters made an official appeal against the decision of referees Curtis Marday and Gerard Chiffone who forfeited their Women’s League match against Anse Etoile Stars.

This happened after RA Sisters decided not to continue playing at the start of the third quarter apparently because the Victoria Gymnasium court had become slippery because of rain. The officials awarded victory to defending champions Anse Etoile Stars who were leading 50-31.

RA Sisters won their appeal and the match was replayed on Thursday at Victoria Gymnasium.
Swept by HotShots in last weekend’s best-of-three Seychelles Basketball Federation (SBF) Cup final series, the Stars put the Cup disappointment behind them to make sure of overcoming RA Sisters.

In the event of Anse Etoile Stars losing Thursday’s match, it would have been their second loss and HotShots would have been declared the champions, thus completing a League and Cup double.

Getting a game-high 17 points from long-time Seychelles pivot Simone Malbrook, the Stars dominated RA Sisters 60-35.
Lucia Souffe made a 12-point contribution while captain-of-the-day and Seychelles playmaker Lindy Mathiot added 11 points to land the Stars their 15th championship title in 17 years.

Coach Michel Malbrook’s Stars dominated their first three quarters 12-9, 27-3 and 15-7 before losing the fourth and final 10-minute spell 6-16.

Skipper Joanna Moustache was RA Sisters’ top scorer with eight points.
Both Anse Etoile Stars and HotShots finished the championship with the same number of points – 23 – but the champions were decided on the head-to-head rule. The Stars finished first and HotShots second.

It is to note that the Stars lost the first-round match-up 43-45 and they needed to win the second-round encounter by a three-point margin to have the edge over HotShots on the head-to-head rule. The Stars came back in style to do even better – getting a six-point win (53-47). The win also put an end to HotShots’ seven-game unbeaten run.