FIJI WOMEN WIN BRONZE

With Coach Poseci Moce out of hospital and able to take his position on the team bench, it was pleasing to be able to show him just how much his team had learned and improved during the past week of competition.  This was Coach Poseci's first game to see his players in action. 

Fiji immediately got into the game with confidence and the starters in Ofa Moce, Brittany Hazelman, Cecelia Oliver, Peniette Seru and Vika Fifita combined well to set up an early lead aganist the much shorter team from Guam.  The Guamanians are renowned for the outside scoring but during the first quarter this was missing from their game,  and Fiji led at the break by 28 to 6. 

The Fiji coaching staff pleaded with the players to get to the outside shots by Guam as they would start to score eventually.  This proved to be correct and Guam started to light up the scoreboard with their outside shots to trail by only 15 at half time.  The 3rd quarter also proved better for Guam as they reduced the lead to 12 by the end of this quarter.

 The rotation of Fiji players saw the lesser experienced girls get a lot of court time and to their credit they managed to not let the Guam team dominate too much and while the lead was reduced, they managed to gain valuable experience in playing time against a fast team with good outside scorers.  Fortunately when the lead looked like slipping away, the Fiji starters were thrown back in to build up the lead again.  

The extra height of Ofa and Britts  and the tenacious rebounding of Cece proved to be the catalyst for the Fiji win.  With the final score of Fiji 75 and Guam 66, the girls were ecstatic and Manager Mere was almost knocked to the floor with their enthusiasm.  Coach Poseci received a "dose of good medicine" that put a huge smile on his face.

   




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