SAMOA (Polynesia Cup) - Samoa will host the Polynesia Cup, the qualifying tournament to the 2019 Pacific Games in their capital city, Apia on November 18 to 25.

The Polynesia Cup was initially awarded to the Cook Islands, however, they are not able to do it because of venue issues in the basketball federation. Following the re-opening of the hosting rights, Samoa Basketball stepped in.

"When Samoa was announced as Pacific Games hosts for 2019, we were very happy that the Samoa Basketball Federation offered to also host Polynesia Cup this year," said FIBA Oceania Competitions Manager, Amanda Jenkins.

"It has been a few years since Samoa has hosted an event, so we are excited to be going back there," she added.

Samoa will also host the Pacific Games next year, the biggest multi-sport event in the Pacific region that is held every four years.

The Polynesia Cup will welcome American Samoa, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Tonga that will make-up the 5-team tournament and will qualify the top two teams excluding host Samoa will qualify for the Pacific Games.