Road to the Pacific Games: New Caledonia Men

The 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa (July 8-17) is the official Qualifier to the 2023 FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers. The top 2 teams will qualify to the next round of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualification phase.

Apia (Samoa) — New Caledonia Men’s basketball team secured the Silver Medal in the  FIBA Melanesia Cup to gain passage through the 2019 Pacific Games.

With stinging seventh-place finish in the last Pacific Games in mind, the motivated and vengeful New Caledonia is expected to carry the momentum from their "Mela Cup" bridesmaid finish in this edition against Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Polynesia Cup king Tahiti, host Samoa together with reigning Pacific Games and Micronesia Games titlist Guam.

QUALIFIERS

New Caledonia racked up a 2-1 slate in the preliminary round with wins over Fiji (73-70) and Solomon Islands (87-52) and defeat against Papua New Guinea (80-77) to finish at second place and advance to the final.

But after a respectable seven-point loss back in the elimination round against Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia was simply dominated by the same rival, 63-81 in the championship round to settle for a Silver Medal.

POSSIBLE KEY PLAYERS

Joan Delaunay - Belleville, Steevan Sillant, Jean Sebastien Chevrin

Young point guard Belleville is certainly New Caledonia’s future. But he has shown readiness to carry the squad today especially after tallying 13.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.7 steals in the Melanesia Cup to make it to the All-Star Five.

Good thing for the 24-year old playmaker though, he will not be alone in the battle this Pacific Games as key players like Sillant and Sevrin can provide the support if needed.

Through four games in their Melanesia Cup Silver Medal run, Sillant normed 10.7 points and 2.3 rebounds while Chevrin registered 10.3 markers and 2.3 boards.

2015 PACIFIC GAMES PERFORMANCE

With wins over Papua New Guinea (77-74) and Nauru (97-37) paired up with losses against Fiji (58-79) and American Samoa (73-84), New Caledonia settled for just 2-2 win-loss card in the group play of the 2015 Pacific Games to fail in advancing through the next round.

But it bounced back in the classification matches with massive wins against the Solomon Islands (90-70) and Kiribati (148-54) to avoid a finish at the cellar.

New Caledonia finished behind champion Guam, silver medalist, Fiji, bronze medalist Tahiti, fourth placer PNG, fifth placer Samoa and sixth placer American Samoa, respectively.

OUTLOOK

Settling for just a second to the last finish in the last Pacific Games, New Caledonia eyes a better outing this time with at least a podium finish in mind.

Save for just crucial losses down the wire, New Caledonia could have had a deep playoff run in the last quadrennial sports showpiece in the Pacific but instead, went all the way down to a seventh place.

With that thirst and lesson together with the experience from the strong Melanesia Cup run, New Caledonia will be in for a legitimate rally targeting a podium finish or in the top five at least.

For more Pacific Games information visit the official website here.

FIBA