BASKETBALL Fijian basketballers remain winless
The Fijian women’s basketball team suffered their third loss in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2017- Division B competition in Bengaluru, India on Tuesday night.
They went down to Kazakhstan 71-48 as the Lai Puamau-coached side continued to improve on their game.
Mili Koyamainavure starred again for the Fijians, leading all scorers with 28 points and adding 5 rebounds plus 4 steals. Koyamainavure spoke of the experience of playing in FIBA sanctioned event.
“It’s an amazing feeling just being able to be here,” she said. “We’ve never been to an Asia Cup much less compete in a tournament with some of the teams we’re playing against. It’s an amazing opportunity and great exposure for us.”
“The transition from the Pacific to Asia can be worthwhile but also challenging,” Koyamainavure said. “The competition is very good and tough, but it’s at a level that we can match if only we had prepared well. It’s tough for us as we’re usually competing at the Pacific level. “Sometimes we’re fortunate to play against Australia and New
The transition from the Pacific to Asia can be worthwhile but also challenging Mili Koyamainavure Fijian women’s basketball
Zealand during the Oceania tournament but that doesn’t happen much. We don’t usually get to compete at this level, so we’re all learning new things that we can take back with us to work on in order to be able to play against some of the top teams in the world,” she said. “It’s always an honour donning the Fijian jersey. Any opportunity I get to represent Fiji, I take it. “Being able to represent my country here in India for the Asia Cup is a blessing,” Koyamainavure said. The Fijians had a rest day yesterday before they take on India today.