Fiji women's basketball side beat New Caledonia 78-62

The Fiji women's basketball team kicked off their campaign at the FIBA Melanesian Games with a blast beating New Caledonia 78-62.

Fiji power forward, Matila Vocea says they are happy with the win and will take it game by game.

Vocea says they went out on a defensive mission to prevent the New Caledonians from scoring 50 points, which did not work out but she says they will change it up for the next game.

She says they need to work on executing the plays and it takes a team effort.

Meanwhile the New Caledonia men's team led the Fiji side 36-24 at half-time, and held back a last minute comeback by Fiji to win 64-62.

The Fiji men's and women's teams will face off against Solomon Islands tomorrow with the men taking the court at 5pm and the women at 7.30pm.

In earlier games, a 6 member Papua New Guinea women's team held off Solomon Islands 63-51, while the Solomon Islands men's team beat Melanesian Games defending champions Papua New Guinea 77-65.