THE BLK Fiji men’s and women’s will now play in the 7th/8th place playoff after bombing out in the Division B semi-finals yesterday in the FIBA-USP U19 Basketball Championship.
The Peni Ratumaiyale-coached men’s side lost to Guam 29-68 while the women’s side went down to New Caledonia 53-63 at the Vodafone Arena in Suva.
Fiji men’s which played catch-up from the opening whistle scored 12 points from the turnovers and 12 points in the paint.
Timoci Kean top scored on 10 points.
The Dale Wise-coached women’s side got off to a bad start and ran out of time in the second spell to clinch the game.
Fiji bounced back in the remaining two quarters but it wasn’t enough to cushion the deficit the New Caledonians had set in the opening half.
Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand will feature in the finals of both grades after convincing wins in the semi-finals last night.
The competition today will start at 9am.
