Papua New Guinea continued their good run of form by beating debutants Chinese Taipei 60 to 39. The team from Oceana got off to an impressive start yesterday by beating hosts Singapore by a goal, and came up against a Chinese Taipei team looking to bounce after their defeat to the Singapore select team.

It was the debutants Chinese Taipei that got off to a flying start in the first few minutes with their mix of quick offensive play and cross court exchanges. A couple of sublime passes by Captain Cheng Hui Ping saw Chinese Taipei take a quick lead. However, after that, Papua New Guinea took control of the quarter with Goal Shooter Jeperth Tulapi scoring nine goals and with a solid supporting cast, the team from Oceana closed the quarter 17-6.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Papua New Guinea continue to dominate going up 19-7, but it was Chinese Taipei, that had the better of the quarter, with Ke Yi Ling, using her impressive shooting technique to score eleven goals. Both teams continued to match each other play by play, and Papua New Guinea ended the second quarter with a score of 32-22.

In the third quarter, Papua New Guinea’s experience and physical prowess showed with two 2 quick goals by Tiata Baldwin, who scored nine goals in the third quarter. Both teams started to struggle a little bit with tiredness with the quarter interrupted with several turnovers. Papua New Guinea continued their ascendance with another 12 goals to Chinese Taipei’s six, to take end the third quarter 46-26.

Whilst Papua New Guinea started brighter in the final quarter, it was a more even affair with both teams trading blows, and showing that attack is the best form of defence. The match ended 60-39 in favour of Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea now go into their third match tomorrow, having won two out of two, whilst Chinese Taipei continue to improve as they go into their third match against hosts Singapore tomorrow.

Quote from Head Coaches

Goh Seck Tuck, Chinese Taipei Head Coach

Going through this first competition on an international stage is one of the stages the team have to go through. Despite what the outcomes are, this is a great learning lesson for them. They’ve worked very hard and the effort level they’ve given is consistently high. As some players on the team are inexperienced, they lose end up losing out on timing.
Experience is something the team requires and this will be accumulated over time. It is important to gain exposure on an international scene and bring it back to Taiwan. Hopefully this will attract more attention and eventually raise the team’s standards.

Unaisi Soroinikula Rokoura, Papua New Guinea Head Coach

We started off really strong and I believe that we could have done much better. Our goal was to have a strong start, and give opportunities for our bench to play.

We gave away a lot of unnecessary penalties which could have been avoided. Chinese Taipei capitalised on it, and we have to learn to fix this.

We want to play a more defensive game, there was a big gap in our defence, and we have to work on it tomorrow morning and try to fix it before we take on Botswana.

I’m going to go back and remind the players that at this level, when you’re given the opportunity to take the court you have to go out there and give it all, you cannot wait for the next quarter. It was a bit disappointing that our bench was a bit slow to start, though we did have some really brilliant passage of play, but at the end of the day we have got to be really consistent especially against Botswana in our next game.

Quote from Team Captains

Cheng Hui-Ping, Chinese Taipei Captain

After watching playback from yesterday’s game, the defensive and offensive have made adjustments to their tactics and strategies. But, the team’s performance today is not up to expectations and the movements are still not quick enough. 
The girls could further improve on their attack as they were not moving around enough to stray defenders away.

Lua Rikis, Papua New Guinea Captain

Today we wanted to shut out their centre passes, and I think we did that a couple of times, and also we wanted to get everyone to play. All the girls had a run so it was good. I think mainly we need to work together as a team, and to learn to communicate. A couple of the newer girls are still finding their way around the court so we need to be communicating all the time.