Oceania All Star teams performing well so far

Before the start of the of the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, the Oceania All Stars are preparing with games against the City of Sydney and Hornsby.  So far the girls team has been undefeated, while the boys team have spilted their games  

The girls game against the City of Sydney was fabulous, with the Oceania girls working together as a team from the first whistle. Valerie Nainima from Fiji was outstanding in the point guard role, directing play and scoring at will from outside the arc.Maea Lextreyt from Tahiti showed what excellent footwork she has, stepping around and into the smallest spaces to score points. At the second practice game, the girls had a convincing 65 point win over Hornsby. The team was led by the Fijian trio of Valerie Nainima, Sera Colata and Agnes Tuilevuka, while tall players Niki Iorss (Tahiti) and Tiata Baldwin (PNG) showed great improvement. With such a large difference in the two teams, coach Whippy was able to rotate his players around, familiarising them with the various positions they may need to play in the tournament. Coach Whippy was very impressed with the way the girls worked together to practice their team plays, especially given the language differences.

In the first game for the men's team Marty Mendoza took the leadership role required as the point guard also. Tall man Iliwa Baldwin (208-F/C) dominated the rebounds. The boys game was a very entertaining game. The Hornsby Spiders opposition are a very highly ranked team in NSW, and they were all trialing for positions in the team so were out to show their best to their coach. It was a game between the Oceania 'boys' and the Hornsby 'men', with the Hornsby team showing their experience from the first whistle. The intensity of the game was just what the Oceania team needed, as it gave them the opportunity to experience the type of play they will be up against later in the week. Stephane Saminadin (New Caledonia) relished the point guard spot when Marty Mendoza was fouled out of the game early. Stephane made a number of vital steals and converted them to points, to keep the score difference to under 20. Big man Jeff Colata was strong under the basket, while PNG's Charles Parapa (188-F/G) showed great footwork to get inside the defence and put points on the board.