Tonga With Gutsy Win over New Caledonia at Pacific Games 2023
HONIARA (Solomon Islands) – Tonga have announced themselves at the Pacific Games with a gutsy win over New Caledonia at the Pacific Games.
It was the match of the day, with New Caledonia controlling the match until late in the fourth quarter, when the Tongans had one final push to clench victory, 82-80.
Veterans, Marcus Alipate, Siale Bain-Vete, and Viliami Foketi played inspired Tongan basketball to come away with the two-point win.
“It was a thriller, and we were lucky to come out with the win, New Caledonia are such a great team, I’m just so happy that we won,” Foketi said. “Honestly I struggled today, but the guys kept me up and fed me with energy.”
In the first game of the day, Fiji jumped out of the blocks early, and while Tahiti tried to muscle their way back into the contest, the Fijians were too strong.
“It was a good hit-out, I’m proud of the boys, it’s the first game for a lot of us together, everyone stepped up and played really hard,” Fox said. “Our defence, and communication was great, and we are just growing, I’m just really proud of how we played and the progress we have made.
Fiji is in Pool B with Tonga, New Caledonia and Tahiti. Tonga will play their next match against Fiji on Monday 20th at 18:00 local time and their final pool game against Tahiti on Tuesday 21st at 13.30 local time.
Pool A saw Papua New Guinea beat Solomon Islands 81-34 and Guam the defending champion easily accounted for Samoa 88-49.
