Restart of competitions

Competitive basketball returned to the TSH last week after a rather long break for the Christmas and New Year holidays. With no less than 18 matches played across the different competitions, with the men’s leagues entering the second round at senior level while all youth leagues, except the under 18 women, played their first matches.

The latter played the semi finals of their League Cup competition and this threw up the most exciting contest of the week, in which Europa Sky edged Med Fever 57-55, having trailed 21-31 at half-time, narrowed the gap to 39-41 at the start of the last quarter and then sinking a 2-point basket and a free-throw in the last seconds to go through to the final against Liberty Rocks, comfortable winners over plucky Calpe Suns, to be played to the best-of-three. The very even contest replicated the group phase match, won 65-64 by Med Fever. The first match of the final will be played at 6.00 pm on Monday and the second one on Friday at 6.00 pm.

Europa Valmar remain unbeaten leaders of the Gibraltar Basketball League after their win over Bayside and their Reserves are now sole leaders in the Second Division, following hitherto joint leaders Hercules Reserves’s defeat at the hands of Bavaria Blue Stars Giants. This is a highly contested competition with GibYellow Beasts and Giants joint third, one point behind Hercules and two behind Europa Valmar.

FULL RESULTS

GBL: Europa Valmar 76 (Chris Pearce 25, Mo El Yettefti 20) - Bayside 57 (Kaylan Balloqui 19, Michael Rodriguez 16, Louis Davies 12);
RCA Bricklayers 67 (Roydon Reyes 28, Aaron Santos 12, Callum Culross 10) - Hercules 59 (Angel Chozas 25, Alejandro Vaello 13, Alberto Vazquez 11).

DIVISION 2:
GibYellow Beasts 75 (David Demoko 32, Romain Molina 14, Jason Schwartz 10, Ethan Penfold 10) - Bavaria Blue Stars Reserves 58 (Callum Baig 25, David Pacheco 11);
Bayside Reserves 70 (Javier Felice 18, Callum Vinales 18, Stefan Tellez 11) - GibYellow Titans 40 (David Connor 16);
Bavaria Blue Stars Giants 74 (Alex Garcia 25, Matvey Celecia 18, Rafa Aradas 17) - Hercules Reserves 53 (Rafa Herrera 18, Juanma Escarcena 16);
Europa Valmar Reserves 75 (Carter Newsome 22, Rhys Borge 18, Ethan Bocarisa 13, Raul Fernandez 11) - Europa Valmar Fusion 37 (Carlos Carmona 12).

U18 LEAGUE:
Europa Valmar 62 (Enrique Navarro 21, Sam Chapman 17, Marco O’Connor 14) - Bayside 50 (Javier Felice 16, Lee Davis 14, Kingsley Sylvester 13);
Bavaria Blue Stars 72 (Theo Dalmedo 21, Oliver Lines 14, Jonathan Teuma 12) - Deloitte Dragons 41 (Quentin McGlashan 12, Juliusz Wojniak 11).

U18 WOMEN’S LEAGUE CUP SEMI-FINALS:

Europa Sky 57 (Nicola Barbara 31, Beau Reyes 14) - Med Fever 55 (Brylee Costa 26, Briella Bagu 12);
Liberty Rocks 70 (Daniella Martinez 28, Sheniah Efigenio 24, Ella Savignon 14) - Calpe Suns 45 (Chloe Balban 13, Rihanna King 12, Dua Tahiri 11).

U16 LEAGUE:
Bavaria Blue Stars 70 (Lines 16, Javier Andrews 14, Ben Lejeune 13) - Bayside 40 (Evan Lima 27).

U14 LEAGUE:
Bavaria Blue Stars 66 (Lejeune 18, Shae Felice 16) - Bayside 32 (Harry Breeze 10).

U14 GIRLS LEAGUE:
Hercules Gators 46 (Briella Bagu 16, Noa Aranzana 10, Chloe Balban 10) - Europa Valmar 33 (Adriana Hernandez 12);
Bayside 61 (Ella Savignon 20, Erin Doherty 14, Ava Perez 12, Mya Raineri 10) - Bavaria Blue Stars 14.

U12 LEAGUE: B
ayside 71 (George Bear 20, Ryan Cornelio 17, Neal Perez 15, Jarel Pareja 11) - Bavaria Blue Stars 42 (Nolan Romero 20);
Hercules Gators 66 (Michael Cassaglia 15, Nicholas Delgado 15, Kyle Foley 12) - Europa Valmar 30 (Ayana Shivdasani 11).

U12 GIRLS LEAGUE:
Europa Valmar 44 (Rafaella Falero Manktelow 19, Maleah Akuma 10) - Bavaria Blue Stars 21 (Sienna Blackshaw 10);
Bayside 68 (Ava Perez 33) - Hercules Gators 14. - JG