PMBL, Kavieng shine

Sports

By JACK AMI
BIG guns the PNG Men’s Basketball League All Star sides dominated the opening day of competition at the national championships at the Taurama Aquatic Centre in Port Moresby yesterday.
There was a clear gap in class between the PMBL sides and teams from other centres around the country.
Lae and Kavieng however put in brave performances managing to keep pace with the city sides and hold their own in spots.
Despite spreading their talent across three teams PMBL still lorded it over the opposition and only faced sterner tests when playing eachother.
Kavieng however demolished Tubusereia 111-50. Led by Wright brothers Lloyd and Liam the New Guinea Islanders simply had too much fire power for the brave Central side in their pool B match.
The Melbourne-based siblings engineered most of Kavieng’s scoring chances from the perimeter.
PMBL second side beat Lae 85-65 in a competitive fixture while NCD saw off Alotau 97-59.
The Central-Daru was the day’s most closely fought men’s game with the westerners taking the game 96-73.
Gulf side Kerema also put 90-plus points on the Tubusereia winning 92-65.
Kavieng and Lae are the most likely sides to trouble the PMBL axis at the championships.
The NCD side is made up of development players from the PMBL. The city’s ju7niors have been given license to play and learn from the experience.
In the women’s competition, Port Moresby 2, National Capital District and Lae managed to score wins.
Port Moresby 2 look to be the team to beat and are expected run into NCD or Lae in the playoffs.
Even though Port Moresby and NCD women’s competitions have yet to get into full swing the talent from the city sides should see go a long way at the championships.
The only question mark would be on the host team’s fitness and whether they can keep up the intensity all week.
The championships are being used by Basketball Federation PNG to pick national men’s and women’s squads for September’s Melanesian Cup in Port Moresby.
For all the outside centres it was first for most of them to play indoor basketball on the floor boards.
Day 1 results: Tues, July 4 – Men’s Pool A Kerema 92 Tubusereia (2) 65, NCDBL 97 Alotau 59, PMBL (1) 96 PMBL (3) 67; Men’s Pool B PMBL (2) 85 Lae 65, Daru 96 Central 73, Kavieng 111 Tubusereia (1) 50; Women’s Pool A Daru 62 Kerema 50, NCDBL 45 POMWBL (1) 40; Women’s Pool B Kavieng 56 Tubusereia 50, POMWBL (2) 71 Lae 65.