Gold for men and silver for women in basketball

The FIBA Oceania Melanesian Cup concluded yesterday with the PNG men's basketball team winning gold after beating Fiji 68-61 in a thriller, and the women settled for silver, going down to Fiji in the gold medal play-off to Fiji 57-44.

Both PNG men and women teams were undefeated in the group stages making it all the way to the grand final.

Their performance was described as a success by Basketball Federation of PNG President David Peter who also acknowledged both teams for qualifying for the 2027 Pacific Games in Tahiti.

"They played with lot of pride, passion and determination. The result shows that our teams remained true to the mission and that was to qualify for the Pacific Games which we achieved," he said.

The exeprienced Moses Apiko from the PNG men's team was impressive in their grand final win over Fiji with 23 points and 7 rebounds. He reflected their preparation as a cornerstone of their success in the tournament.

"We were trailing and trailing and for us to come back hard and win is awesome," Apiko said after their gold medal win.

For the women, it was history in the making as player Betty Wong mentioned during an interview that it was the first time for the women's team to win all their games in the group stages before going down to Fiji in the gold-medal play off.

"We've never won all the countries in the round games, and this is the first time we did that, so we are grateful," Wong said.

The team arrives back home today.