CANBERRA (Australia) - Australia are champions once again, winning their third straight FIBA U15 Oceania Cup against New Zealand in the Final.
Meanwhile, Samoa ended Tonga's memorable debut to claim third-place and Guam secured 5th place.
The exciting day of action started with Guam taking a wire-to-wire win over Tahiti, 78-65. After suffering a Semi-Finals loss, Guam bursted out of the games determined, and opened a 25-8 point advantage at the end of the first quarter. They'd cruise along the way to the final buzzer, distributing playing time and points throughout the roster.
Four players scored in double-digits for Guam led by Kyson Cornelius (15 points) and Francis Jones II (14 points).
Tahiti had a two-man tandem of Heikeamana Sage (26 point) and Hiro Bonnet (17 points).
In the third-place game, Samoa had no regard for Tonga's upstart run in their debut, dominating the way to a 113-76 win.
Kingston Tutani started the game with 4 points in the opening 6-0 run and Samoa never looked back. The lead gradually built up in the tail end of the second quarter before reaching a 32-point cushion in the third quarter and would have no trouble closing the game out for a spot on the podium.
After a magnificent outing against New Zealand, Troy Kaufusi was limited to 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals for Tonga. Soane Hola also had 22 points and 9 rebounds for Tonga.
However, it was not enough to offset the firepower of Samoa who saw three players score at least 20 points in Levi Afitu (26 points), Leevae McDonald (22 points), and Brandon Gray (21).
"As a team we trained for weeks together," said Afitu after the game. "As a team we bonded as a family with the team, it’s been great to know all the boys.
"We played as well as you could and its good taking the bronze with my team."
Corey Ah Mu also put up a monstrous stat line with 13 points and 22 rebounds.
This is Samoa's second time finishing on the podium after also finishing third in 2018.
The grand finale of the competition saw Australia finish on top once again, winning the Final 96-68.
The Crocs left no room for suspense in the rematch of a game that went into overtime the first time they faced each other a few days ago. Australia built up a double-digit lead in the first quarter and kept their foot on the gas to the final buzzer.
Lawson Pryor ended up as New Zealand's leading scorer as expected with 16 points, but it was rare for him to get an easy shot with Australia's defense ready.
Six players reached double-digit scoring for Australia and to no one's surprise, William Hamilton led the Crocs in scoring with 22 points on an efficient 8-14 shooting from the field to go with 9 rebounds and 4 assists.
Hamilton was then named MVP.
Antonio Browne had another all-around game to close out an impressive campaign with 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Final Standings:
1 Australia 2 New Zealand 3 Samoa 4 Tonga 5 Guam 6 Tahiti 7 Fiji 8 Cook Islands 9 New Caledonia
FIBA