Fiji men's U19 team loses opener

AMERICAN Samoa stunned BLK Fiji in its opening match of the FIBA Oceania under-19 Basketball Championship in Suva last night.

The home side struggled to find their rhythm from the first quarter and simple mistakes cost Fiji the game as they went down fighting 47-61 at the Vodafone Arena.

Fiji coach Peni Ratumaiyale said Fiji made silly mistakes.

"We were over confident," he said.

"The boys went inside there, rushing, making silly passes which resulted in turnovers and it cost us the game. The boys were not thinking they were not ready. The fitness is there, but they don't know how to use that fitness."

He said American Samoa had no move and were fit but they capitalised on Fiji's mistakes.

"We just have to go back to the drawing board and hopefully we get back on track before the next game."

An elated American Samoan Diehl Langkilde said the match was so intense.

"Fiji played good basketball," he said.

"The game was intense for American Samoa, we were anticipating a tough game but we weren't expecting that type of basketball Fiji was playing."

"Credit to Basketball for how Fiji played, they shut one of our best players.

"They were killing us in the first half and we changed the tone in our defence."

Fiji plays Tahiti today at 8pm while American Samoa takes on Papua New Guinea at 6pm and Tahiti at noon.

 

<http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=287929>
Emoni Narawa
Tuesday, December 02, 2014




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