Samoa and New Caledonia Hold Their Nerve

HONIARA (Solomon Islands) - Quarter final action did not disappoint at Friendship Hall with New Caledonia and Samoa progressing to semi-finals.

In the first quarter final, Papua New Guinea (PNG) gave everything they had, but New Caledonia were too strong, holding them out 87-78.  The men from PNG got within three points of the New Caledonians with two minutes remaining in the final term.

PNG Captain, Apia Muri, did what he could under the rim at both ends to finish with 27 points and 9 rebounds, and Harold Elavo pushed hard to finish with 14 points and 6 rebounds.

Raymond Weber, 9 points and 2 rebounds, Ludovic Mtrail, 11 points and 5 rebounds, and Jean Sebastien Chevrin, 12 points and 2 rebounds, led from the front and willed their men to a semi final spot against Fiji.

“It was a very difficult game, PNG are a very great team, and we knew that they would be very physical,” Chevrin said.  “When we represent our country, it is the best experience.”

Despite power outages at the venue, Samoa held their nerve to punch their ticket to semi final encounter with Guam, defeating Tahiti 81-71.

Semika Chong Nee was once again impressive with 24 points, while Captain, Devante Keil, did it at both ends of the court to finish with 19 points and 9 rebounds.

“We had a lot of emotions riding through this game, we came in thinking a lot about our brother (Victor Keil) who got injured last game with concussion, we really did it all for him and our country and we are excited to move on and face Guam again,” Keil said.

Leading his team across the tournament so far with rebounds, Keil said his performance in the quarterfinals came from wanting to medal for Team Samoa.

“I just wanted to get the win, so we have a shot at winning a medal,” Keil said.  “All of the boys are locked in so we are going to stay focussed.  We are getting better day by day, the more we play together and stay together, we are looking out for each other." 

“I feel like we can beat them (Guam), we really can, no one is unbeatable.”- Devante Keil

  For Tahiti, veteran Ariirimarau Meuel, was solid finishing with 21 points and 8 rebounds, with Kevin Liu using his height under the rim with 11 rebounds.

Tomorrow, classification games will be played with the Solomon Islands taking on Tonga, and Papua New Guinea up against Tahiti.

The Pacific Games are being hosted by Solomon Islands from November 19 – December 2, 2023.  The Pacific Games Basketball Tournament is the official qualifiers of the Oceania region to the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers.