Maltese basketball defending champions Starlites FIJO have secured their third signing of the summer as they announced US guard/forward Melvin Newbern Jr to their squad on Tuesday.
The 6’5 player out of Minot State university joins a Starlites roster that has already found replacements for last season’s import players, with the benefit of having Matt Attard – the first signing of the three – playing as a local player.
Newbern joins the Naxxar side right out of college. Last season, he appeared and started in all 16 games in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division Two during a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He led the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game while posting the second-highest shooting percentage on the team (56.4%).
The new signing joins an already powerful squad this coming season as Starlites aim to continue their run of successes after taking the season’s title with a clean 3-0 sweep over Mellieha Libertas at the end of a season in which they took the top seed.