Madang Town Basketball Association completes season amidst challenges

Madang Town Basketball Association (MTBA) concluded its season on Sunday, 25 October 2026, despite going through a challenging year. 

This season featured four divisions, including Women’s A Reserve, Men’s A Reserve, Women’s A Grade, and Men’s A Grade, with over 100 basketball players participating.  

The competition started in late June and ran only two rounds (6 games per round), with the finals tipping off in September and ending in October.

Madang Town Basketball Association Secretary, Stephanie Siou, said this season had been a challenging year for the competition, which lost one of its administrators. 

“It has been a very tough year for the Madang Town Basketball Association. We started our season very late,” she stated.  

“We lost our competition director, the late Raymond Parangkei, last year on December 6th, who did most of our draws or matches. We had to teach ourselves how to do that.

“We had to purchase and bring in new basketball rims from China due to bad weather that damaged our previous rims and boards.

“It was a very challenging year for us, but we managed to pull through and finish the season successfully.” 

Secretary Siou thanked the MTBA executives, sponsors, participating teams, and the fans for their support this season.

“I would like to thank our major sponsor, Kina Bank. I also thank MadFox Pawa, who supported us during the pre-season games,” she expressed. 

“I also thank our technical officials. Without them, the games would not be facilitated and run smoothly to complete our season.  

“To our 2026 MTBA executive committee, I thank you for your unwavering support throughout the season.

“And finally, to the registered clubs, including DWU, EduHoopers, Kake Sapea, Mavericks, Medics, Momase Chebu, and Stars, thank you for bringing the games to life.” 

Mrs. Siou explained that MTBA will have its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to appoint the new executives for the 2027 season.

“There’s a lot of groundwork still to be done to the MTBA structure in terms of administration, technical capacity, and disciplinary issues,” she said. 

“We have our AGM coming up, and a new executive committee to be appointed to run the association next year.”  

The outgoing MTBA executives are President Gary Litz, Vice President Samuel Avapura, Treasurer Julliane Parangkei, and Secretary Stephanie Siou.

Meanwhile, the following are the results of the four divisions:

• Stars 78 vs. EduHoopers 28 - Stars secured the Women’s A Reserve Title

• Stars 31 vs. Kake Sapea 35 - Kake Sapea claimed the Men’s A Reserve Trophy 

• Stars 26 vs. DWU Valorians 23 - Stars won the Women’s A Grade Title

For the Men’s A Grade decider, although Stars led by 8 points, the game was awarded to the Mavericks under special circumstances.