Coach positive despite hiding

THE Papua New Guinea Under-18 women’s basketball team were out-classed 121-13 against pool favourites New Zealand in their last pool match of the FIBA Oceania Championships in Suva, Fiji.
Sitting last in their pool the PNG women will face host Fiji today, who in third place one above PNG.
The positive for the Mary Elavo (pictured)-coached side is if they beat Fiji they restore some pride and dignity and stay off the bottom of the championship standings, despite the mauling they recieved at the hands of a rampant Kiwi side.
Guam take on Tahiti in the other pool’s third place playoffs.
In the first and second playoffs, New Zealand face Samoa while Australia take on New Caledonia.
Coach Elavo congratulated the effort demonstrated by her side in the championship saying “it was a good learning curve for each of them.”
In a game dominated by New Zealand all throughout, Elavo said the PNG women had learned a lot from the experience.
“Just like our other games, the girls continued to make a lot of mistakes and New Zealand was all over us from the beginning till the end,” Elavo said.
“I am still proud of the girls because they stood up and never gave up against a strong side, they did their best for the country and I am so proud of them,” she added.
Going up against Fiji today Elavo said they would do their best but as usual it would be challenging once more as Fiji would have the crowd behind them and they would have the expectation of victory on their shoulders.
“Playing against Fiji will be challenging for us because they have won in the group stage and we haven’t.
“They also have the local crowd in their favour which tips them as favourites but we will do our best once again like we’ve done in our other matches,” Elavo said. Giants trample Aussies