By Renate Rivers

The Samoan women’s basketball team played a stunning game against host country New Caledonia last night at a packed Salle Serandour Sports Facility.
Samoa started strong with 8 unanswered points in the first few minutes of the first quarter, shocking their opponents with aggressive ball-play and precision shooting. The New Caledonians eventually settled in to the game beginning a point-for-point contest that would span the entire game.

The girls led after the first quarter 18-14 but by half time the New Caledonians had clawed back a six point lead at 22-16. Successive three-pointers from the pint-sized Charlotte Davis brought Samoa back. The New Caledonians’ defense was impressive and consistent in comparison to Samoa, who at times looked fatigued and pushed to keep the pace.
The girls fought back in the third quarter to lead 21-17 and continued to lead right through the final quarter – 3 to 5 points ahead respectively. In the final minutes of the game, and with Samoa in the lead, New Caledonia were fortunate to have fouls called against Samoa, and free throws were awarded. The score was 69-70 with less than a minute to go, Samoa was fouled once again and New Caledonia’s Audrey Guillou sank two free-throws to put them ahead 71-70. As the final seconds ticked over, the girls were unable to put any more points on the board and lost the game by the one point.

A marked improvement from their first game where they were easily defeated by Tahiti 48-66.

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Renate Rivers

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