These are busy days for the Malta Basketball Association. At present, the country is hosting the U-18 Division C European Cham-pionship for girls and next week the same tournament for boys will also be played at the Ta' Qali Pavilion with the participation of seven teams.

The men's U-18 tournament has now reached its seventh edition and the one of next week, starting on Monday, will be the fourth to be played on our shores.

In fact, the MBA organised this competition for three consecutive times between 2001 and 2005.

So far, Malta U-18 has never obtained a podium place although the team was very close two years ago in Wales where the gold medal was won by Scotland.

Malta was drawn in Group A along with Moldova, Monaco and San Marino. Group B is composed of Andorra, Gibraltar and Wales.

The first game, Moldova-Monaco, will be played on Monday afternoon. This will be followed by an opening ceremony and the second match of the day - Andorra vs Gibraltar. The Maltese team will make its debut against San Marino in the last match in programme.

The locals will be pinning their hopes on Samuel Deguara, the Benetton Treviso player, and Maltese-American Taven Falzon.

National coach Bruno Di Pietrantonio will be assisted by former national team captain Silvio Cassar, Kristin Baldacchino and Emmanuele Sgarlata.

The squad: Samuel Deguara, Taven Falzon, Nigel Sultana, David Bugeja, Jean Paul Schembri, Gianluca Cuschieri, Clive Perreira, Anton Axiaq, Tom Paris, Edward Bonello, Ryan Galea and Michael Giusti.

Girls U-18 tournament

Played yesterday: Monaco vs Luxembourg 58-79; Moldova vs Gibraltar 84-61.

Today: 4.30 p.m. Gibraltar vs Monaco; 6.45 p.m. Malta vs Moldova 84-61.

Current standings: Luxembourg (3-0) 6; Moldova (1-2) 4; Malta (1-1) 3; Monaco (1-1) 3; Gibraltar (0-2) 2.