MANGILAO (Guam) – Samoa pushed New Zealand all the way in match of the day at the FIBA Under 15 Women’s Oceania Championship.

Samoa came agonisingly close to New Zealand but the Kiwi's came away with the victory 78-70, with the Samoans proving that they are a growing force in women’s basketball.

From the Samoan bench, both Vanessa Tavete and Sina Tofilau Oliva finished with double points and starters Harmony Seumanutafa and Jennifer Mailei also finishing with double points, Mailei collecting a double-double, 17 points and 11 rebounds.

The New Zealand contingent held strong despite going down 29-18 in the second quarter to secure the win.  Bailey Flavell and Storey Sadler were solid offensively with Sophia Hickey and Graecyn Parahi dominating rebounds both end of the court

“I think I played a good game but so did the team.,” Parahi said.  “It was hard to adjust to each other at first because we haven’t played much together.

“The game plan was to force them left and not let them go right because we watched them yesterday and they scored off their right a lot.  Our game plan was to push the ball down and score as often as we could."

New Zealand will face Australia tomorrow in the gold medal rematch from 2018 and Parahi said the team are looking forward to the challenge.  “We are just going to go out, have a good start, keep the pressure on them.”

Guam had a convincing win over Papua New Guinea (PNG) to boost their confidence heading into a rest day for them tomorrow and quarter finals on Thursday, 121-23.

Having only landed in the early hours of the morning, the team from PNG pushed hard all game but were overcome by the experienced Guam outfit.  Gibella Maikai finished with 10 points and 16 turnovers making her the team’s top performer.

For Guam, Ryanna-Lee Ngirchomlei, Arriah Arceo and Lana Quinata was among the top performers with Maria-Jean Paulion shooting 20 points and 10 steals to finish up with a double-double.

“I think the whole team bought a lot of intensity today on defence and offence and we keep pushing all game,” Borja Paulion said.  “We know we have to keep pushing in this tournament, so we need to keep bringing that intensity.”

On her own performance, Borja Paulion said, “I knew that if I keep going and going it will bring energy to the whole team and lift the team’s intensity.”  Which is exactly what she did.

Day three of the FIBA Under 15 Oceania Championship tips off at University of Guam, Calvo Field House with Papua New Guniea taking on Northern Mariana Islands at 10:00am and New Zealand come up against Australia at 12:15pm local time.

The FIBA U15 Oceanian Championships serve as qualifiers for the FIBA U16 Asian Championships 2023 with the top two teams going through.  The FIBA U15 Oceania Championships will be hosted in Guam from November 21 to November 26 - Follow the event here

FIBA