PNG remain luckless

By JACK AMI
PAPUA New Guinea remain winless after two matches in the boys’ division on day two of the Fiba U15 Oceania Championships at the Taurama Aquatic and Indoor Centre yesterday.
New Zealand thrashed PNG 163-51 in the earlier game and Samoa added to the home side’s woes when they secured a 128-75 victory to leave the hosts winless in three matches.
The 112-point margin will give New Zealand a lot of confidence heading into today’s clash with Australia at 3pm to determine the tournament frontrunners.
New Zealand’s Benjamin Gold bagged 29 points, Reegan Trego 18, captain Saatan Tawera 17, Levlok Kerr 16, and Ethan Skelton 16.
The quarter scores were 41-14, 83-23, 123-35 and 163-51 all in favour of the visitors.
New Zealand used their height advantage and combined effectively to score easy points.
PNG tried tirelessly to claw their way back into the match but they were outclassed in all departments.
Meanwhile, it was an improved performance from the PNG girls despite going down to Fiji 85-46.
The home side played much better than what they did in Tuesday’s clash with New Zealand.
In the other boys’ matches, Australia thumped Fiji 119-27 and Samoa stopped Guam 85-63.
Fixtures: Thursday, Dec 6 – New Zealand v Samoa (girls) 11am, PNG v Guam (boys) 1pm, Australia v New Zealand (boys) 3pm, Samoa v Fiji (girls) 5pm, Australia v PNG (girls) 7pm.