Road to the Pacific Games: New Caledonia Women
New Caledonia clinched the Bronze Medal in the first ever FIBA Melanesia Cup to gain passage to the 2019 Pacific Games.
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) – New Caledonia clinched the Bronze Medal in the first ever FIBA Melanesia Cup to gain passage to the 2019 Pacific Games.
New Caledonia will be in for an acid test in an even bigger stage against formidable squads led by FIBA Polynesia Cup champion Cook Islands, Melanesia Cup titlist Papua New Guinea and reigning Pacific Games queen Fiji together with Guam, American Samoa, and host Samoa.
QUALIFIERS
New Caledonia went winless in the group stage of the "Mela Cup", bowing to Solomon Islands (53-59), Papua New Guinea (48-61) and Fiji (49-55).
Despite the fruitless group phase campaign, NCL entered into the Bronze Medal match of the four-team Melanesia Cup where it definitely saved the best for last with a fitting 60-49 revenge win against the Solomon Islands to complete the podium behind champion PNG and runner-up Fiji.
More importantly, the huge win pushed New Caledonia into a return ticket to the Pacific Games.
POSSIBLE KEY PLAYERS
Yolande Luepak, Clementine Puleoto, Diana Moutry
Behind her near double-double average of 10 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, Luepak made her way into the All-Star Five of the Melanesia Cup.
But more than her scoring prowess, New Caledonia will be expecting leadership and experience from the 35-year old veteran Luepak.
The pair of Puleoto and Moutry will also be out to backstop Luepak especially after their respectable averages in the Melanesia Cup.
Puleoto normed 11.3 points and 5.0 rebounds while Moutry averaged 10.3 markers and 4.7 boards.
2015 PACIFIC GAMES PERFORMANCE
"New Cal" finished sixth in the 2015 Pacific Games.
It suffered losses against Fiji (40-85), American Samoa (62-79) and Guam (57-68) but came back with wins over Solomon Islands (73-50) and Nauru (79-34).
With 2-3 win-loss slate, New Caledonia failed to advance to the playoffs of the Pacific Games which was eventually won by Fiji with a 65-61 win over American Samoa.
OUTLOOK
New Caledonia participated in the Arafura Games in Darwin, Australia last April, in the lead-up to the 2019 Pacific Games, finishing fourth out of six teams.
Read more here: Delaveuve: ''The Arafura Games was a good step in the preparation plan''
With renewed confidence from its third-place finish in the Melanesia Cup and their long preparation including an overseas tournament; New Caledonia will be surely looking to improve from its sixth-place finish in the last edition of the quadrennial sports joust in the Pacific.
For more Pacific Games information visit the official website here.
FIBA