PNG Pepes fall to Singapore in Nations Cup

PNG Pepes succumbed to their first lost at the Fairprice Foundation Nations Cup losing 36-54 to Singapore on Tuesday.
And coach Pole Kassman has promised that it will be their only loss. 
“This will be our last loss the girls need to pick themselves up again and move forward,” Kassman said. 
“We always believe that we’ll bounce back but we have a young team and towards the end the adrenaline wore off and they panicked and realised they were playing an international match.
“We have back-up shooters; we just have to work a lot harder,” the long-serving coach said.
Singapore were on a high from Monday’s victory over Sri Lanka when they met PNG and continued their winning streak.
The shooting combination of Chen Huifen (GA) and Cassandra Soh (GS) worked a treat, the mid court players worked hard to deliver good balls for the on-target pair to convert into points.
With a nine point advantage at half time (27-18) Singapore dipped slightly in the third period allowing PNG to make up some ground and outscored Singapore 8-11.
A more confident and composed Singapore returned to court for the final 15 minutes and took control winning the last quarter comfortably.
Cassandra Soh felt she had a better performance than day one.
“We had great support from the feeders and got some good turnovers. It was a better game for me, I felt good out there.”
Co-captain Jean Ng added: “Looking at the way things are progressing I think we are gaining a lot of confidence along the way. We’ll take one game at a time and tomorrow is a different style of play again so we will have to adjust.”
PNG lost their top goal shooter in the first half to injury and coach Pole Kassman felt this was the turning point of the game.
“It was a very physical match and we lost our goal shooter.
“We lost the game more than they won it,” said Kassman.
In the other matches, Namibia and Malaysia were looking for their first victory in the competition.
Namibia were awash with emotion after the final whistle as they came out on top (44-42) but only edged ahead in the final few minutes.
Namibia played the first three quarters with their youngest player, 16-year-old Nelandre Mostert as goal shooter, ably supported by captain Jatjinda Kambatuku.
They racked-up just 27 goals after a lot of pressure on them from the defence.
Coach Marcha Myburgh was overcome bytheir achievement.
As the lowest ranking side in the tournament, this was a major stepping stone for them.
“Everything just came together at the end, the girls stayed so focused and they stuck to their plan.
“They didn’t pick up the speed. That was the problem at the beginning; they tried to play at the pace of Malaysia.”
Malaysian coach Norizan Rajab, tried to explain the reasons behind their second straight-defeat: “I think my girls played better in yesterday’s game.”
Fiji showed their class in the final match as they defeated Sri Lanka 81-24.
Ahead by 27 points at halftime, they maintained their momentum and dominance mid-court looking a vastly improved side from their opening match.
Fiji coach Una Rokoura was pleased with the progress.
“It was good to see that we’d really planned our game well against Sri Lanka.
“We analysed their game yesterday and we contained them. I am glad that the girls stuck to the game plan.
“The girls kept their cool. Our aim was for discipline, to cut down on the infringement errors and we did that.”