Port Moresby teams claim All Star double

 By GABRIEL LAHOC

PORT Moresby made a clean sweep of the CPL All Stars Basketball championship claiming the title from the grasp of arch rivals Lae in both the men’s and women’s finals on Sunday at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae.

The Port Moresby men shut out Lae 80-56 while the women scored a 51-40 win over their Lae counterparts.

The Lae men with the crowd behind them started off strongly in the opening quarter before Port Moresby went up a gear in the second quarter and dominated proceedings over the remainder of the final. 

Lae struggled to match their capital city opponents but found the pace and skill too much and committed many fouls in the process.

Madang settled for bronze in the both divisions while Chimbu and Kavieng finished in fourth place.

President of the Papua New Guinea Basketball Federation Nick Daroa (pictured) thanked the participating teams from Lae, Port Moresby, Mt. Hagen, Madang, Kavieng and particulalry Chimbu which was acknowledged for its good record of participation in all PNGBF sanctioned tournaments.

He said competitive basketball in the country had picked up after being dormant over the last four years and with the K200,000 two-year sponsorship from City Pharmacy Ltd more tournaments would be held to engage more basketballers around the country.

“It’s been a great collaborative effort put in Lae Basketball association and the federation in Port Moresby, you can see that we missed out four years of championships like this,” Davora said. 

He also acknowledging the recently elected executives of the federation.

The All Stars championship will be used to select players to make up the national team to compete in several international tours in the coming months.

“We will have a men’s and women’s team to participate at the Pacific Open basketball tournament in Wellington, New Zealand,” he said.

The junior championship will be held from Sept 22-27 in Kavieng, New Ireland.