Fiji, the host nation of the Oceania Championship recorded their first victories of the championship on day two of competition. Both the U18 Men’s and Women’s team’s picking up wins against a struggling Tahiti. The U18 Men’s Fijian team led for the majority of the game, which at one stage blew out to a 25 point lead. The final score ended up at a convincing 65-49 victory for the Fiji.
Fijian player Colin Lal was instrumental in Fiji’s victory scoring 21 points, 6 boards, 2 assists and 6 steals. Lal has led the way thus far for Fiji, after already having a game high scoring performance against Guam on day one, which unfortunately Fiji were unable to come away with win, going down to Guam 64-51.
After the game, Lal expressed his pride in securing the team’s first win in front of the home crowd.
“It’s an honour to play at our home court, winning our first game…I don’t know how to express it, the boys are really happy. It’s our first win, even though we’ve won that battle the war is still not over” Lal said.
The game itself was a back and forth affair with the turnover count. Finishing at 33 for Tahiti and a whopping 35 for team Fiji. However Tahiti were unable to capitalise on Fiji’s errors, managing only 12 points off turnovers compared to Fiji’s 29.
The lack of urgency and efficiency hurt Tahiti throughout the game, converting only 29.2% of their free-throw opportunities while shooting only 30% from the field.
Colin Lal was happy with the team’s performance, is hoping the Fijian’s can put the same effort in and match anyone in the tournament.
“The goal in this tournament is to get gold and qualify for the 2017 U19 world championships at Egypt, so that’s our mission right now and we look forward to completing that mission” said Lal.
When Colin was asked, who he is most looking forward to facing, Lal replied without any thought “Australia”.
While it’s going to be tough for the Fijian team to knock off the heavyweights of the championships in Australia & New Zealand. Fiji’s national pride and the home crowd advantage will give the team a massive boost throughout the whole tournament.
There is no doubt that Colin Lal is enjoying wearing the Fijian colours and representing his nation out on the court.
“It really means a lot, because it’s my first time playing for my country. All I ever wanted was to show my skills out there, and make my country proud.”
The Fijian U18 Women also secured their first win of the tournament on day two of competition, also beating Tahiti 56-29.
Fiji led from start to finish in a very dominant performance. Leaving the head coach Esala Banuve proud of his team’s efforts.
“Playing in front of our home crowd, it’s a happy feeling” said Banuve. “We are so happy that we got this win. It was a good start, one of our philosophies is start strong, finish strong. We are happy that we won in front of our people who came to support us.”
Team captain Losalini Katia put in a big performance for her team. Leading the game in scoring alongside her team-mate Mafi Foiakau, both scoring 16 points. Katia also totalled up 11 rebounds. The Fijian captain’s performance was crucial in establishing Fiji’s dominant presence inside, outscoring Tahiti 26-8 for points in the paint.
