Junior Tall Ferns beat Samoa in Oceania Champs semi-final

The Junior Tall Ferns (JTF's) progressed to the FIBA Under 18 Oceania Championships Grand Final by defeating Samoa 108-25 in the semi-final played in Suva on Friday afternoon.

The JTFs made a perfect start as Akiene Reed converted a lay-up on the opening play and Tiarna Clarke landed a sideline three on the next possession.

New Zealand scored the first 9 points of the game before Samoa opened their account with an inside basket.

Aliyah Dunn finished strong in the paint, Charlisse Leger-Walker landed a jump shot and followed with a steal and lay-up to take the JTBs to a comfortable 25-4 quarter time advantage.

Samoa opened the scoring in the second quarter but seven straight points opened the JTFs advantage to 32-8.

The JTFs were dominating the paint and inside baskets from Dunn, Charlotte Whittaker and Esra McGoldrick increased the Ferns lead to 44-10 at the mid point in the stanza.

A three from Alyssa Hirawani capped a strong first half from the JTFs as they led 56-14 at the interval - a balanced scoring effort led by McKenna Dale (8pts).

Leger-Walker knocked down a corner three off a no look Clarke pass, Clarke landed a brace of triples of her own as New Zealand scored 15 straight points before Samoa replied.

Samoa, with a number of Kiwi based players, never gave up and enjoyed a brief scoring burst before Kendell Heremaia landed a jump shot to help the JTFs to an 83-23 lead at the last break.

Whittaker continued to trouble Samoa with her inside presence and earned herself a couple of trips to the foul line. Jayden Fuiava and Reed scored from beyond the arc and it was another triple, this time from Leger-Walker that brought up the JTFs ton.

New Zealand coach Brent Matehaere was content to share the playing time amongst his full playing group ahead of a tougher examination against Australia in the final.

The Junior Tall Ferns will face Australia in the final at 4pm on Saturday for a place at the FIBA Under 19 World Championships in Cairo next year. Earlier Australia hammered New Caledonia 137-8 in the first semi-final.

Final Score:

Junior Tall Ferns 108 - Clarke 14, Reed 12, Whittaker 11, Leger-Walker 11, Dunn 11, Fuiava 10

Samoa 25 - A Sau 8, F Ropati 7

All games are live streamed at www.youtube.com/FIBA

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Basketball New Zealand