Photo: FIBA
Tahiti and Tonga have qualified for the 2023 Pacific Games men's basketball tournament.
And the Cook Islands and Samoa have qualified in the women's event following the FIBA Polynesian Cup held in New Zealand.
Tahiti men's captain Ariirimarau Meuel led his team with 33 points and 10 assists to seal a win over Samoa in its final game, despite trailing by 23 points at one stage.
"It was a tough game, as we expected," Meuel told the FIBA website.
"We know that Samoa are a really good team and we struggled in the first half by plus 20. We battled as a team to get through those 20 points and get the win.
"The message [at half-time] was 'don't panic', we still have a whole half to come back so we just needed to believe in ourselves, and it worked."
The Tongans cruised past American Samoa 72-47 in their final game.
Marcus Alipate had a consistent tournament and is excited about the future of Tongan basketball as they now set their sights on the Pacific Games.
"We have lot of guys that are young, hungry and want to play and for us, to come from having six guys in 2018 to a squad of 10 here and a lot of the guys are young so it's a blessing."
Cook Islands retain title
In the women's event in Kaitaia, the Cook Islands successfully defended their 2018 title to win gold with Samoa taking silver and Tahiti the bronze.
Cook Islands captain, Keziah Lewis said the girls were thrilled to go back-to-back and qualify once more for the Pacific Games.
"It has been a really good tournament for us, we came in thinking we would have more players, but overall, I'm so proud of our team," Lewis said.
"Terai (Sadler) was pretty good for us, but as a team we all supported and contributed to how the tournament unfolded."
Samoa's Loreighelle Joseph was prolific for Samoa in the third quarter to finish with 15 points in the 83-58 win against American Samoa.
"We wanted to finish on a good note for this tournament, for me personally I felt like I needed to pick it up a bit, I knew yesterday's game wasn't the best for me, but my teammates had my back," captain Malama Leaupepe said.
"I'm really proud of all the girls, from the youngest to the oldest, I'm so proud of them for taking the time to learn from me and from each other, I'm just really proud of my team-mates.
The Pacific Games are being held from November 19 to December 2 next year.
Photo: FIBA
