Samoa take game away

The Samoa national netball squad proved too tough for the Cook Islands team who went down 49-40 in their first game of the Pacific Netball Series in Fiji on Tuesday night.

Both sides took some time to settle down and had their fair share of errors.

The game was tit-for-tat in the early parts of the first quarter before the Cook Islands went to the first quarter break up ahead by two points – 13-11.

Samoa lifted their game in the second quarter to expose the Cook Islands’ lack of cohesion as a unit with wild and wayward passes a feature of the local side.

Samoa took a healthy 25-20 lead heading into the half time break.

In the third quarter, known as the champions quarter, Samoa showed their composure and aggression to dominate the Cooks to lead by 10 points before taking out the quarter 37-28 to make for a tough fourth quarter for the Cooks.

The Cook Islands showed their fighting spirit to pull Samoa’s lead back to four goals in the last quarter but it wasn’t enough as Samoa kept their cool to take out the game by nine points – 49-40.

Fitness wasn’t an issue for the Cook Islands but captain Luciana Matenga admitted that errors were the side’s biggest let down.

Errors the game commentator attributed to the obvious lack of time the Cook Islands team have spent together. Matenga said that her message to the team ahead of their second game was to stick to the game plan and go out there with the fighting spirit she knows her team has.

The Cooks faced PNG last night before facing top ranked Fiji tonight.

The game against Fiji will be aired on Cook Islands Television at 7pm.