The Samoa U-15 basketball team is leaving no stone unturned in their bid to qualify for the Global Challenge slated for this October.

The team’s skills challenge on Saturday at Gym 2 Tuanaimato showed the intensity of the players and confirmed how much the young basketball players wanted to qualify.

FIBA Delegation Robbie Ah Fau told the Samoa Observer on Saturday that he has seen a lot of improvements by each of the players and there are a lot of potential players in the team.

"We are doing great, there's a lot of improvement, some of them, this is their first time but some of them have been playing in teams, clubs, and association,” said Ah Fau.

“For this challenge, I have seen a lot of potential players from Team Samoa since we are going against other countries like Mongolia, Iran and other big countries.

"Right now, we are developing a lot of players, we have five associations so we have the East Association, West Association, Central Association, Savai’i Association and Mulifanua Association. 

He added that these associations are developing the code at the youth level as the sport continues to grow. 

“These are the associations that are developing the youth for basketball because basketball is the fastest game developing around the world. 

“We're trying our best, some of the kids here say that this is their future and are thinking they have a career here in basketball. 

“We're trying our very best to develop them so they can use their potential to become basketball players.”

Ah Fau added that some of the kids idolized famous basketball players such as Lebron Jame and Michael Jordan and he believes that’s what has motivated them to play hard and train hard in the skills challenge.

"They have been watching a lot of basketball players like Lebron James, Michael Jordan, and those guys and they want to be just like them. 

“We have been trying here in FIBA for this skills challenge, we are trying to develop the U15s to get skills so they can become great players and represent Samoa.

"They are from a different association but have been training non-stop. We just select the best five from each association to represent Samoa in this U15 skills challenge."

The skills challenge was recorded by the Samoa Basketball Association officials and will be sent over to FIBA for review and rankings.

"You see the cameraman who was standing over there, so we are recording everything, even the court has been measured properly from FIBA, and then we do the Skills challenge. We send the recordings, we are also counting the points as well. 

“Time is also being done. The results are expected to come in next week.

"Every country is competing right now, so if we make it in the top 2 we will qualify for the Global Challenge which is the final.”

The top two teams that come out of the skills challenge will qualify to compete in  the Global Challenge which is the final.