B’ball teams depart for Singapore

The National Sports

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE national men’s and women’s basketball teams departed yesterday for Singapore to compete in the Fiba 3×3 Asia Cup from July 6-10.
This is understood to be the first time that the Papua New Guinea Basketball Federation has sent national teams to compete in a Fiba-sanctioned Asia event.
Under coach Moi Muri, the teams will make their first international appearance since the 2019 Samoa Pacific Games, in tomorrow’s pool fixtures.
Federation president Karo Lelai told The National yesterday that the move to field teams in the tournament was part of their high performance strategy and planning.
“We’re sending our first national teams to Asia to participate in a tournament that’s at a much higher level than the Pacific Games,” she said.
“This is to build our players using the tournament as a platform.
“The hope is that when they come back with that experience, they’re already at a much higher level than their peers from around the region.
“This is also part of preparations for the national teams to the Melanesian Cup in October.”
Meanwhile, the men’s team have been pooled with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan while the women’s team will face Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Guam in the group stage.
“Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are tall, so we have to have a different game plan or strategy to get around them,” Lelai said.
“For Guam, we’ve been playing against them for many years, and they’re fast and accurate shooters.
“We have to defend well to contain them and make sure that we put our shots in.
“We haven’t had a great lead-up as we would have liked.
“We haven’t had (the opportunity) to travel for a while, but we’ve done the best we can.”
Lelai acknowledged the federation’s partners in Team Up, the PNG-Australia Sport partnership and the Fiba Foundation.
“Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to start this journey into building our three-on-three pathway,” she said.
“I’d also like to express the federation’s sincere gratitude to our sponsors in Kumul Consolidated Holdings, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited and Santos for making this trip possible.
“Without their financial support, we wouldn’t be able to send the team to Singapore, so we thank them for their generosit.”
Squads: Men – Ivano Ivano, Purari Muri, Corneluis Muri, Moses Lune (reserves are Michael Henry and Gabriel Elavo); Women – Betty Angula, Rosa Kairi, Normalisa Dobunaba, Marca Muri (reserve is Susan Paisoi).