Pacific Airtime - Papua New Guinea's Coni Muri (No.10) contests for the ball against New Caledonia's Jean Sebastien Chevrin in their Pacific Games quarterfinal match. The Cagous went on to win 87-8 setting up a semi-final with Fiji. Friendship Hall 22 November 2023. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
New Caledonia have knocked Papua New Guinea out of the men's basketball competition at the Pacific Games in Solomon Islands setting up a semi-final with Fiji on Friday.
It was a tense match with fans on both sides egging their players on at Friendship Hall.
Throughout the game, New Caledonia's sharp shooters would pull the Cagou in-front only to have Papua New Guinea claw their way back into the game.
Papua New Guinea captain Apia Muri is the second highest point scorer in this competition and one of the most efficient players in Honiara.
He put in a big shift for his team, scoring 27 of their points and getting nine rebounds.
The soft-spoken captain said their lack of accuracy in crucial moments let them down.
"It was a tough one but we just didn't make the baskets, we fell short for crucial ones," Muri said.
His father and coach Moi Muri said that at the end it was ill-discipline that cost them the game.
"We thought we were going to hold them until the last minutes but then some of our good players got five fouls and then we couldn't hold them to it.
"We could have got some clear shots from outside, set screens for our shooters...unfortunately it didn't happen," Moi Muri said.
His New Caledonian counterpart Benjamin Guy was a bundle of nerves after the match.
He said throughout this tournament his players have just refused to kill a game off early.
"I think we like to play with fire, that is the message," Guy said.
"Sometimes the game is going our way and we have got to kill the game, but we never kill the game. That means the other team are coming back again and again and again it is always that. It is awful to coach!" he said.
On tactics, Guy said two things: first that he knew going in Papua New Guinea was the more athletic side and second that their captain Muri always scored at least 20 of their points.
"You have Papua New Guinea who can just run and run and run and jump. We are not this kind of team, we have players who can shoot, who can drive, and we can play inside with big players.
"That means when you look at our scoring it can come from any of our players," he said.
New Caledonia's captain and shooting guard Paul Boawe said there were two defensive adjustments they made that he felt won them the game.
"We changed from zone defence to man-to-man and upped our intensity to stop Papua New Guinea's transition game," Boawe said.
The Pacific Games men's basketball semi-finals are on Friday in Honiara. First up at 5pm local time Guam take on Samoa and then at 7.30pm New Caledonia will play Fiji.
The gold medal match at Friendship Hall will be held at 4.30pm on Saturday.