PORT MORESBY (Papua New Guinea) -The Papua New Guinea Under 17 Women’s Team are confident they will step up to the challenge with Samoa, New Zealand and Australia bringing their best players to the FIBA U17 Oceania Championship.

Despite the delay in finalising their 12-women squad, first time national coach, Michael Memafu said there is a lot of talent that the host country is ready to show in the weeklong tournament.

“These girls have been training for months with most of them coming from their local competitions back in their villages and towns and they’ve proved that they can be a competitive team,” Head Coach Memafu said.

“We want to be competitive among the visiting teams especially with the last U17 champions, Australia bringing their best among the Tall Blacks and the Samoans.”

He said like the PNG U17 Men’s Team, this national team line up also consists of U15 national representatives who competed in the 2022 FIBA U15 Oceania Championship that are ready to bring their experience to the court.

“Among the girls, we have a 13-year-old who was in last year’s U15 squad, alongside three more juniors,” Head Coach Memafu said.

“We also have one of our juniors who is currently training with the elite women’s team preparing for the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands at the end of the year.”.

Camellia Konaka who was named captain of the team will lead with experience.

“She has experience, I think she can lead.  She’s got the capabilities and the strength of a senior player despite her age.”

“We also have a couple of tall girls in our team, we will try to keep things simple on the court and to be competitive.”

About the 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championship

The 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championship will be hosted by the Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby at Sir John Guise Stadium from October 2 to 6.  The Championships serve as the first step in the qualification process to the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup.  The top two placed teams at the 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championships qualify to the 2024 FIBA U18 Asian Championships.

FIBA - Jamie Haro