POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
New Caledonia confirmed its position as the best Pacific copuntry behind the two giants, Australia and New Zealand, with a Bronze medal in the FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament in Auckland. Some of the boys could be add in the future New Caledonia NT for the 2007 South Pacific Games where NC will be looking for a fourth consecutive Gold medal.
New Caledonia came in Auckland without Jean-Christian Arnaud (186-F-87) but also without Raymond Weber (195-F-89), the best U20 player of the country who left Noumea to play in France. So claiming a Bronze medal without him is a great result. After the pool's loss to Fiji (76-87), the boys were able to regroup and in the playoffs they defeated Guam and Tahiti to take the Bronze medal. New Zealand and Australia are still out of reach for the caledonian but a team with the players based in France might be able to scare the two oceania giant during the most part of a game.
The mix between experienced players (Stephane Saminadin (175-G-86), Jean-Jacques Taufana (185-F-86),...) and newcomers (Karyl Pallandi, Ludovic Souque,, Tony Kolokimoana) worked out pretty well and the scouting of the talent throughout the entire country has been improved as shown with the addition of Berranger Poaragnimou, a player from the North Province. New Caledonia will now focus on the 2007 South-Pacific Games in Samoa and will make a tour in Hawaii for the Asia-Pacific tournament with an experimental squad to test some new players. The country will be the center of attention in the region in the future as host of the 2011 South-Pacific Games and maybe the 2010 FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament.
Pools:
New Caledonia - Papua New Guinea: 84-48
An easy win to start the tournament over a disapointing pNG squad. This game allowed the coach to give some responsabilities to the inexperienced players like Tony Kolokimoana (16pts), Beranger Poaragnimou (10pts) or Pierre Loyat (8pts).
Stats: Tony Kolokimoana 16pts 6/13FG 6rbs, Stephane Saminadin 16pts 5/12FG 6st, Ludovic Souque 12pts 5/10FG 8rbs
New Caledonia - Fiji: 76-87
A tough game for the second place and the boys were unable to stop a good fijian team. A lot of problem in defense but also a disapointing offensive game with many missed shots.
Stats: Stephane Saminadin 20pts 7/21FG, Karyl Paillandi 16pts 6/12FG 7rbs, Tony Kolokimoana 12pts 4/11FG 7rbs
New Caledonia - New Zealand: 60-133
A game for the memories against a very impressive NZ squad. Even with a large loss, coach Francois-Elocie believed that his team learnt a lot. "It was a great occasion for our players to get more experienced playing against some great teams such as New Zealand, or Australia, who are the reference squads for us".
Stats: Stephane Saminadin 12pts 4/11FG 5ast, Jean-Jacques Taufana 11pts 4/12FG 6rbs, Karyl Paillandi 10pts 4/8FG
Pool Standing:
1- New Zealand
2- Fiji
3- New Caledonia
4- Papua New Guinea
Quarterfinals:
New Caledonia - Guam: 75-63
Before this game, coach Angelo Francois-Elocie, had high expectations.
"If the australians and the new-zealander are above the rest, our goal is to reach the semifinals. We should continue to prove our value at the Oceania level." he said. His team answered with a brilliant win over a good guamese team, the caledonian were able to use their size to dominate in the paint (37-27) to secure this win. Tony Kolokimoana in particuliar was very good in this game.
Stats: Tony Kolokimoana 19pts 8/11FG 13rbs 2bs, Karyl Paillandi 18pts 7/11FG, Jean-Jacques Taufana 10pts 4/9FG 6rbs
Semifinals:
New Caledonia - New Zealand: 64-137
Even if the caledonian were dreaming of a miracle win, there was no-match between these two team
