THE Fiji men's basketball team had a flying start in their Pacific Games campaign as they outclassed Nauru 126-52 at the BSP Arena in Taurama, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on Friday.

The lop-sided affair was predicted before the start as the Fiji men towered over their much shorter opponents and while Fiji was throwing hoops after hoops during the warm-up, Nauru was missing most of theirs.

Fiji started the game with their strongest five and were soon off to a 10-point gap. By the end of the second quarter, the gap was more than 30-points and by the third it was a 40-point difference. The barrage of points continued in the last quarter as well. Captain Marques Whippy led his men gallantly and the fans gathered at the newly built arena even got to witness a few slams.

Whippy said the team did great but the real battle was yet to be faced. "We still have to fix a few aspects of our games especially with the turnovers, and I think that is fixable," he said.

Assistant coach Frank Saketa said prior to the game the team had no idea how strong Nauru was.

"We started with our strongest team because we wanted to make a statement with our first game. It also allowed us to get into routine as well because we had a chance to test the bench," Saketa said.

Fiji defeated New Caledonia 79-58 in their second game yesterday.

Source: Fiji Times Newspaper

Sunday 5th July 2015