Road to the Pacific Games: Papua New Guinea Men

The 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa (July 8-17) is the official Qualifier to the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers. The top 2 teams will qualify to the next round of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualification phase.

Apia (Samoa) – Papua New Guinea men’s basketball team reigned supreme in the FIBA Melanesia Cup which they hosted to book a ticket to the 2019 Pacific Games.

Papua New Guinea will be up against the Solomon Islands, Samoa, New Caledonia, Tonga, Polynesia Cup champion Tahiti together with the Micronesia king and reigning Pacific Games titlist Guam in the upcoming regional event.

QUALIFIERS

Papua New Guinea hardly broke a sweat in the "Mela Cup" to make its way to the Pacific Games as one of the legitimate title contenders.

It completed an immaculate 4-0 tournament sweep built on a dominating 26.0 points per game winning average to head into the Pacific’s quadrennial sports showpiece brimming with confidence to make a serious run to the coveted crown.

Papua New Guinea manhandled Solomon Islands (79-37), New Caledonia (87-80) and Fiji (83-49) before edging out New Caledonia anew in the Melanesia Cup final.

POSSIBLE KEY PLAYERS

Matineng-Lakah Leahy, Apia Muri, Liam Wright

As the Melanesia Cup champion, Papua New Guinea produced two players in the All-Star Five.

Those were Leahy and Muri who will be expected to lead the charge anew for Papua New Guinea.

Leahy averaged 11.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game while Muri normed 11.7 markers and 4.7 boards per game in the Melanesia Cup.

Also expected to make some noises are Liam Wright who tallied 7.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in the qualifiers among Melanesia squads.

2015 PACIFIC GAMES PERFORMANCE

Papua New Guinea missed out on the podium in the last edition of the Pacific Games, settling for a fourth-place finish following a tough loss against eventual runner-up Fiji.

PNG actually opened its campaign with a painful 74-77 loss against New Caledonia before coming back with crucial wins over American Samoa (90-65), Fiji (75-73), Nauru (97-35), Tahiti (81-70) and Samoa (75-65).

But PNG got decked by eventual champion Guam, 53-103 to be relegated in the bronze medal match where it also suffered a stinging vengeance from Tahiti, 73-83.

OUTLOOK

After having its commendable campaign go for naught in the last edition of the Pacific Games, PNG will be out to redeem itself this time.

Led by the troika of Leahy, Muri, and Wright and a huge momentum, PNG will be surely gunning for a podium finish and will even strive for the Gold Medal against the strong contendersPolynesia Cup champion Tahiti and reigning Pacific Games titlist and Micronesia ruler Guam.

For more Pacific Games information visit the official website here.

FIBA