PNG U-18 Men’s basketball team

PNG defeated the Cairns Stingers U-18 team 80-62 on Sunday afternoon, but went down to the Cairns Marlins U-18 side 99-58 last night at the Fish Tank.

“In the opening match I thought we did a great job defensively, which led to a lot of fast-break opportunities.

“We were able to get stops and rebound the basketball, which triggered our up-tempo style of play,” said Khalu.

“In the second game against some better opposition, we had a lot of defensive breakdowns and that hurt us early.

PNG will face the Cairns Stingers U-18 side at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon, before matching up with the Cairns Marlins U-18 squad at 5pm on Monday.

Along with the two games, the team will have a series of training sessions and will also attend the Cairns Taipans and Illawarra Hawks National Basketball League (NBL) game. It will be held at the Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday evening.

Basketball Federation of PNG (BFPNG) Chief Executive Officer, Joel Khalu, who is also the team’s head coach, said everybody involved was excited about the 4-day tour to Australia.