WOMEN’S BASKETBALL RACKS UP FIRST WIN AT PACIFIC GAMES

The American Samoa women’s basketball team registered its first win in the XV Pacific Games this week when they defeated the Solomon Islands in a tough match, with a final score of 80-44.

It was a tough game for the women’s side but they upped their game easily when they followed the game plan, according to their head coach, Haili Ripley.

“It was a tough and a challenging match for our women’s team, even though there were some mistakes during the game; but they picked up their win so easy when they did exactly what they were told to do,” Ripley told this reporter after the match.

The American Samoa team was strong in both defense and offense, and they also made good use of their turnovers.

In the first quarter, American Samoa took the lead at 22-12, follow by 43-22 in the second half, and then 64-38 in the third quarter, finishing off with a final score — a 36 point lead.

Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga and his wife Pohakalani were among those who cheered on the team.

The women’s team looked sharp and active when they took the court yesterday morning, and that good combination together with the teamwork helped them beat the Solomon Islands.

Ripley told Samoa News that every team needs to have a game plan to control the tone and the morale of the game.

“If you don’t have a game plan, your team will never win, and if there’s a game plan but your team fails to execute it, your team will face the same consequences,” said Ripley in an interview with Samoa News.

Ripley said,“I commend our team for the job well done and I hope they will continue to shine in the last two games left in the tournament.”

The Solomon women’s team head coach David Toupue told Samoa News that his team suffered when they didn’t stop the American Samoa’s offense.

“Our defense was really bad and when American Samoa attacked with the ball, they had everything with them to secure the ball and to make sure that they will drive straight to the basket and get the point,” said Toupue, who was in shock when American Samoa defeated his team with such a wide point distance.

Toupue said that American Samoa’s team is a really good team with a lot of experienced players who put together their skills and their knowledge to form a strong team.

When asked by Samoa News if it is true that his team is considered one of the good teams in the tournament, his response was “yes, I was thinking that my team is much better than the American Samoa side, but when I saw this young team perform on the court, that’s when I started to realize that my feelings were just a joke — because American Samoa’s team was better and much stronger than my team.”.

The game stats show that Rheina and Destiny King had the highest points in the match with 18 points each, with 67% in the field goals and playing between 29:09 and 30:01 minutes in the whole game, while Mercedes Tipesa Moore scored 14 points and Kristen Alo followed with 10 — all helping the team beat the Solomons on their first watch.

The Solomon Islands head coach commended the young American Samoa team for their effort during the match, which saw them defeat his side with a big win.

American Samoa’s next Women’s Basketball game will be against Fiji, to be followed by a game with New Caledonia on Wednesday.

WEIGHTLIFTERS START WITH 3 BRONZE MEDALS IN OCEANIA COMPETITION

Three local lifters from the American Samoa Weightlifting team for the XV Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, have already won three bronze medals in the Oceania Weightlifting Federation (OWF)- Email Competition that runs twice a year, every year.

The three local lifters are Tanumafili Jungblut, Orepa R. Talo and Monica Afalava.

According to the coach and trainer for the weightlifting team, Alo Lopesi Fa’agu, they placed third from all 13 Pacific countries that competed.

“This competition runs twice, for six months every year, and the three bronze medals we received this week are part of the competition that ran from November 2014 to June 2015,” said Alo in an interview with Samoa News.

“Every six months each Pacific country under the OWF submits their athletes’ results to the OWF headquarters in New Caledonia from their own local competitions, and from there, the OWF evaluates all the results sent by email so that they can finalize their decision and see who is doing better than the other,” Alo explained to Samoa News.

When Samoa News asked Alo about the criteria of the competition and how the OWF selects the winning athletes for each medal, Alo said that he doesn’t know how the OWF bases their evaluation and decision.

“I don’t know how the OWF came up with their decision for each countries’ results, but all I know from the past is that they assess each lifter’s results to see if they’re moving up, staying constant or moving down, and from there the OWF decides which athletes from each Pacific country are moving up, and those are the ones that receive medals,” Alo explained.

It’s good news for Team Amerika Samoa - Weightlifters as they are heading into the Pacific Games competition already with three medals in pocket — that’s simply a great morale builder.

In the meantime, it’s been decided that the medals will be officially presented in American Samoa. American Samoa sport minister, Jonathan Fanene recommended holding off giving each lifter’s medal until they go back home, and a special ceremony will be arranged so that Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga will get a chance to officially present these medals to each lifter, to show them and their families that the government is honoring their hard work.

Fanene told Samoa News that he was very pleased to learn that our athletes won medals in the OWF for the Email Competitions.

“It’s not an easy job, and while each lifter is keen to do their best for American Samoa, we as leaders need to show to our athletes that we appreciate everything they have done for our country and for our government,” said Fanene.

He expressed his gratitude and happy feeling when he was told by the weightlifting officials about the bronze medals.

“Winning a bronze medal is not a small thing if you think about it. It’s something that tells you that you’re in third place in the whole of the Pacific nations, so it’s not something that us leaders should think lightly about.  We have to think deeply about it and do something for our athletes,” Fanene said.

Currently, in the Pacific Games weightlifting competition, Fiji is has bagged eight medals: three golds, one silver and four bronze.

All three golds for Team Fiji- weightlifting were from their golden man Tulo Manueli, who won his 56kg division for the snatch, clean & jerk, and the total.

Nevo Ioane from Samoa won three medals for his home country, with one gold and two silver.

MEN’S BASKETBALL 1-1 AT XV PACIFIC GAMES