Australia Remain Queens of Oceania

PORT MORESBY (Papua New Guinea) – Australia win gold at the FIBA Under 17 Oceania Championship to maintain their unbeaten history.

A gallant New Zealand stayed in-touch with the Aussie’s until mid-way through the second quarter, but Australia had the depth to push harder and retain their champion status in the Oceania region.

Jade Crook, Sienna Harvey, and Saffron Shiels all stood tall as they have all week, leading Australia to golden status with Lara Somfai finishing the match with 18 points.

“It’s super exciting, I’m so honoured to be here and to be able to play with such a great bunch of girls and coaches,” Somfai said.

“We were expecting this game to be tough, and we knew they would fight for it, but we came out here together as a team and that’s what we wanted to do to win gold.”

Lara Somfai in action

“Every single one of us improved throughout the week, myself and coaches included, and that’s the beauty of tournaments like this and playing at such a high level, we always have room for improvement.”

For the kiwi’s Kavanah Lene was incredible finishing with 27 points with Elise Gilbert also putting together another solid game.

Surviving a second quarter push from the host nation, Samoa held their nerve earlier in the day to win bronze, defeating Papua New Guinea (PNG) 135-47.

Samoan Captain, Kira-May Filemu was all praise for her team.  “I’m super pumped and so proud of the girls, at the start of the week we had a goal to get a medal and we have achieved that,” she said.

“We didn’t get the result that we wanted in the semi-final yesterday, and we were guttered, but honestly, we have girls from Australia, USA, New Zealand and Samoa, and we have only had a week to prepare, so this result highlights our strengths and weaknesses, and we recognise that.”

Kira-May Filemu running the court in the bronze medal clash

Regarding her individual performance in the bronze medal match, Filemu said her double double was a team effort.

“I’m relieved, I don’t think I have performed as well as I would have hope to in this tournament but that is the nature of basketball, I’m just glad we could get the job done today, and a double-double to top it off is amazing,” Filemu said.

Azaleeah Oloapu, L’Oreal Hiko and Malia Ruud also finished the tournament on a high with double doubles while 53 of their points were scored from the bench.

About the 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championship

The 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championship were hosted by the Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby at Sir John Guise Stadium from October 2 to 6.  The Championships served as the first step in the qualification process to the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup.  The top two placed teams, Australia and New Zealand have qualified for the 2024 FIBA U18 Asian Championship.