Kerema turn heads

By JACK AMI
LITTLE-known Kerema scored a double victory on day one of the National Under-18 Basketball Championships at the Taurama Aquatic Centre yesterday.
In the men’s division, Kerema thumped Madang 96-38, and in the women’s competition, they edged out Mt Hagen 37-36 in a tight contest.
The Gulf team, comprising students from Kerema’s Coronation Secondary School, saw forward Issachar Omae net a tournament-high 47 points, with support from Kevin Akia (9) and Patrick Solomon (7), while Ben Aisi and Norman Kevin also had fine touches in the one-sided thrashing.
Madang may have been out-classed but Alex Molowia registered 13 points but had scant contributions from teammates as they found it hard to penetrate Kerema’s effective defence.
Kerema were rampant in every quarter raking up comfortable leads: 26-16, 19-9, 23-9 and 28-4.
In the other men’s match, the PNG Men’s Basketball League U18s had the better of Central winning 63-29.
Daru looked ominous in their match against Central with the slick Westerners coached by  Jordan Sere  and former PNG international Morris Asiba taking a big led in the first quarter.
But the spot light on day one still shone on the tournament favourites PMBL with their players have the dual advantage of having played on the Taurama court as well as having played in the senior ranks of the country’s only elite basketball competition.
National Capital District, who only recently affiliated to the national federation, are the other side that have the potential to have an impact on the tournament with their squad have similar strengths to the  PMBL side.
Absent from this tournament were teams from Lae, Kavieng, East New Britain and Alotau.
The men’s division had 10 teams divided into two pools and the women’s competition had seven sides in it.
PMBL’s team one and two are favoured to top their respective pools but the NCD and surprise packets Kerema will make things interesting.
In the women’s competition, Port Moresby teams one and two have the experience and calibre of players to win the division but again sister team NCD cannot be counted out as they have similar strengths.
Men: Pool A – Daru, Madang, Central, PMBL, Kerema; Pool B – NCD, Kupiano, PMBL (2), Mt Hagen, Simbu; Women: Madang Port Moresby 1 and 2, NCD, Kerema, Mt Hagen, Simbu.
Fixtures: Thurs, Sept 29 – Men, 9am – Pool A: Kerema v Central (C1), Pool B: PMBL (1) v Daru (C2);   Women, 10.30am – Kerema v Pom (C1) and Pom (2) v NCD; Men, 12pm –  Pool A: Central vs PMBL 1 (C1), Pool B: Mt Hagen v PMBL 2 (C2).