KAITAIA (New Zealand) – Tonga plays inspired basketball to get an important win over Samoa with Tahiti continuing their winning ways at the FIBA Polynesian Cup 2022.

On Tonga Constitution Day, the Tongan national men’s basketball team did not disappoint at the FIBA Polynesian Cup, defeating Samoa, 90-82 in a hard-fought battle.

Derhyse Matautia was good from the Samoan bench finishing on 15 points with Einer Viane Thompson dominating rebounds to finish with 10.  Captain Wayne Sio gave his all to finish with a double-double, 18 points and 16 rebounds.

Tonga led for the first half, but Samoa fought back in the third to head into the final term with a three-point lead.  Marcus Alipate, Stephen Paea and Siale Bain-Vete were consistent, but the difference was Viliami Foketi who finished with a double-double on 30 points and 10 rebounds.  Shooting at 70 per cent from the field, Foketi put the team on his shoulders and inspired the win.

“It was a battle, we got the lead early in the half, but they fought back, as all good teams do, and we went into halftime with our heads down,” Foketi said.  “After that we came out still resilient and fought hard so it was nice to come out on top.”

Despite going into half time with momentum against them, Tonga rallied and Foketi said the half time messaging was very clear.  “To be honest I kind of ‘went off’ at the team, so maybe that was what kicked everyone into gear, it was a mixture of good and bad things, we knew we played poorly but were still close on the score board.  We focused on the good things and worked on the stuff we needed to.”

Tonga finished third at the FIBA Polynesian Cup in 2018 and seventh at the Pacific Games 2019, with their performance at this tournament, they are announcing themselves as a force across Oceania.  “It is a really emotional day for us (Tonga Constitution Day), Tonga verse Samoa is always a great rivalry, and we had a good contest against Tahiti which announced us, previously we have not been up to the levels of other teams, and I think now we can confidently say that we are up there,” Foketi said.  "In Tonga the game ­­has a lot of growth to do so the potential for Tongans to come into the program and make a difference, I’m really excited about that.”

In the second match of the day, undefeated Tahiti were too strong for the Cook Islands winning 104-52.  Akira Marsters and Te Bluegum tried hard all game, but the Tahitians were unstoppable.

Heimoana Teamotuaitau and Maui Roopina were in shooting form with Glenn Garbutt backing up his shooting finesse with 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double.  However, captain Ariirimarau Meuel found his groove to sink 27 points.

“I have been trying to get my rhythm, have been struggling with my rhythm so far in this tournament so heading into tomorrow’s match I hope I can maintain that” Meuel said.

“The Cook Islands were tired from their game last night and we were fresh after a day off yesterday.”

With Pacific Games 2023 qualification in their sights, Team Tahiti had built something special to defend their FIBA Polynesian Cup title and potentially setup a re-match with Guam in the Solomon Islands at the Pacific Games in November next year.

“Half of our team are new to the team, so we are looking forward to training together alongside some others who were not available for this tournament ahead of the Pacific Games next year.”

The final day of the FIBA Polynesian Cup 2022 tips-off at Puna Ora Stadium in Kaitaia, New Zealand with American Samoa taking on Tonga at 2:30pm and Samoa facing Tahiti at 5pm local time.  All games will be live streamed on the FIBA YouTube channel.

The top two teams at the Poly Cup will qualify for the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands. The Pacific Games then serves as the official qualifier for the Oceania region to the FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers.

FIBA