THE Fiji under-18 women’s team were yesterday trounced 122-8 by Australia in their FIBA U18 Oceania Championships 2016 pool game at the Vodafone Arena in Suva.
The loss pointed the need for more development on women’s basketball, said Fiji U18 assistant coach Agnes Sokosoko.
“Australia comes from a very good program where the kids are tunnelled through the program at such a young age, so by the time they get to 18, they would have mastered most of the skills,” Sokosoko said.
“I think Basketball Fiji really needs to look at developing our program to something like Australia’s program where we get kids at a young age.
“Getting them through the channels and by the time they get 18 they would have mastered the skills and by the time they get to national level it’s much easier for them,” she added.
She said because Australia was the U17 World Champs, the Fijian side went into the game thinking realistically.
The team will face PNG tomorrow and Sokosoko said they won’t be able to make the A-Division finals, but they hoped to get through in the B-Division competition.
