23/09/2017
Oceania
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Samoa progress to Quarter Finals as Guam and Cook Islands bow out of the Asian Indoor Games

ASHGABAT – The 5th Annual Asian Indoor Games has some Oceania flavour to it, Ashgabat is playing host to this year’s event and for the first time ever, 3x3 has been added to the Games schedule. Also for the first time, the Games will feature Guam, Samoa and Cook Islands.

We have seen mixed results for the Oceania teams to this point in the event. FIBA 3x3 Pacific Champions, Guam men have been knocked out of the competition after suffering losses to Chinese Taipei (13-10), Thailand (15-10) and Indonesia (21-14).

Guam centre Seve Susuico was disappointed with the results after their final game with Indonesia.

"It has been very physical. We tried to be competitive but those guys had a big shooting night. In 3x3 basketball, you have to defend strongly on perimeter otherwise you see the ball inside the basket and the game is over."

The Guam women have produced similar results to the men after falling to Indonesia (15-5) and Thailand (21-6).

The Cook Islands women are no strangers to big 3x3 events after qualifying for the 2016 FIBA 3x3 World Championships in China.

Unfortunately for Cook Islands, they fell to Jordan in a nail-biting 17-16 thriller. Following this game, Uzbekistan proved too strong in their second match of the day.

Fortunately for the Samoa men, they are still in with a chance of making the finals. The Samoa men are set to play Iraq today in their Quarter-Finals matchup after convincing victories over Jordan (21-12) and Afghanistan (21-18).

If they are able to outlast Iraq this will see them just one victory after from the Gold Medal match.

Can Samoa keep their country and regions hopes alive?

FIBA