AMERICAN MONEY GROUPS ASIA PACIFIC TOURNAMENT

The Fiji Women recently returned from the Asia Pacific Tournament held in Laie, Oahu, Hawaii over the Halloween weekend. Although Fiji had played at this tournament twice before, in 2003 and 2004, it was the first time a womens team made the trip. The team was made up of the bulk of the gold medal winning team from the Samoan Pacific Games minus key players, Mikaelar Whippy, Valerie Nainima and Batiri Thaman. These players were however ably substituted by Hannah Tuikoro, Alisi Tabualevu and Cecelia Oliver. In the tournament proper Fiji lost the opener by 26 points to a well drilled and aggresive Huazhong university team from China. In Fiji's next game they came back strongly to almost upset BYU Hawaii. After leading by eight at half time Fiji let BYU back into the game and in the end BYU came out victors by 72 to 68. Although it cost a lot to send the team across to Hawaii, the experience was well worth the expense. The tournament was well organised and the Canon Centre facility was excellent and probably the best gym that many of our players have had the chance to play in. We also got a chance to meet up with Marques Whippy and Agnes Tuilevuka who both have sports scholarships at BYU, Marques for basketball of course and Agnes for volleyball and basketball. Another plus to the tour was Sera Colata being offered a scholarship to play for the Seasiders next year.


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