Apia (Samoa) - Samoa is automatically qualified to the 2019 Pacific Games as the hosts of the quadrennial event.

Despite the certainty of their participation, the host nation did not hold back in their preparation for the region's most prestigious basketball competition.

Samoa hosted the first-ever FIBA Polynesia Cup in 2018, a five-country tournament featuring Tahiti, Tonga, American Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Let's take a look at Samoa's journey to the Pacific Games.

QUALIFIERS

As mentioned earlier Samoa hosted the FIBA Polynesia Cup. Although the proud Samoans fell short of their Gold Medal aspirations, the home country showed their prowess with dominating wins over Tonga (132-100), American Samoa (99-63) and Cook Islands (97-70) while losing by the slimmest of margins to Tahiti in the Gold Medal game 76-77 to take home the Silver Medal.

POSSIBLE KEY PLAYERS

Theo McFarland, Sapeti Tufuga and Ryan Paia.

McFarland was a dominating presence for Samoa in the FIBA Polynesia Cup. The 6'6 big man averaged 19.6 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals to lead his team.. McFarland will be tasked to anchor Samoa's inside game while pesky guards Sapeti Tufuga (20.8 ppg, 4.2 apg) and Ryan Paia (12.2 ppg and 8.4 rpg) will form a competent backcourt for the host country.

2015 PACIFIC GAMES PERFORMANCE

In the 2015 Pacific Games, Samoa finished the Preliminary Round with a 2-2 standing to advance to the Second Round. The island nation failed to advance to the Knockout Round with a 1-2 win-loss card to end up with an overall 3-4 record for a  fifth-place finish in the 10-country tournament.

OUTLOOK

Samoa is definitely targeting the Gold Medal in front of their country in this year's Pacific Games. Aside from the homecourt advantage and their impressive outing in the FIBA Polynesia Cup, the host country also went to China for a 2-month training camp in preparation for the Games.

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

FIBA