P.N.G. snuffs out Samoa's medal chances in men's basketball

Marty Leahy

The Papua New Guinea men's basketball team has defeated Samoa, 75-63, ending the host nation's hopes for medals in 2019 edition of the Pacific Games. Samoa took Papua New Guineans to task, coming close in each of the four quarters, only for P.N.G. to continue to add points to maintain a slim lead until the end. After the first quarter, the timer went off at 19-21 to P.N.G. In the second quarter, scores were tied multiple times until P.N.G. pressed for defense harder against the host nation, with 34-40 to P.N.G. at half time. Top scorer and top performer of the match, 23-year-old Theodore McFarland (198-C-95) said although it was unfortunate, he remains hopeful for the next game, against New Caledonia. "Yes it was very unfortunate, little mistakes but it was a good game, tough game. "Good team from P.N.G. but we won't stop here, we've got a game ahead of us tomorrow. So we're going to pick up on our mistakes and work for it tomorrow, hopefully going to work for it tomorrow," he said. Asked what went wrong, he said, "lack of defense, we had a lot of mismatches and that". Mc Farland scored a total of 24 points, one block and 16 rebounds, while P.N.G.'s top performer, Marty Leahy (200-SF-97, college: WKU) scored 21 points, 5 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Courtesy of: samoaobserver.ws