Rules & Regulations:
The 15th Asia Pacific Cup will follow FIBA rules (as a FIBA sanctioned tournament) with modifications as listed below and by clicking on the button below (Rules for 2026) all other Tournament Rules & Regulations are listed.
The 15th Asia Pacific Basketball Youth Cup will follow FIBA rules with modification as follows;
Timing for all round games and consolidation games will be 4 x 8 minutes quarters with one timeout of one minute per quarter per team. Clock will stop in the last two minutes of last quarter.
Time outs will not be allowed to carry over to subsequent quarters.
A 24 second shot clock will be played in all U16 & U18 games.
Timing in all Championship games & 3rd Place to be 4 x 8 minutes fully stopped with 24 second clock. (Full FIBA rules including normal timeouts).
Defense for U12 & U14 Boys and Girls must be man to man defense. Full court man to man defense is allowed, however, NO full court or half court zone formations will be allowed.
Defense for U16 & U18 Boys and Girls can play both zone or man to man defense.
Any overtime in rounds will be only 3 minutes whilst in Finals it will be 5 minutes.
Ball sizes will be size 5 for the U12 girls, size 6 for all U14, U16 & U18 girls and U12 boys with size 7 for U14, U16 & U18 Boys.
Please click on Modified Rules below to see the full list.
15th Asia Pacific Cup Singapore 2026 — Playoff Formats
All teams will compete in their respective round-robin pools before progressing to the playoffs. The playoff format depends on the number of teams in each division.
3 points will be awarded for a win, 1 point for a loss.
If there is a tie then FIBA head to head rules will be applied to determine final positions in the round games.
Playoff Structure by Division
12&U Boys - 20 Teams - 5 pool winners + 3 best runners-up advance to Quarterfinals
14&U Boys - 28 Teams - 7 pool winners + best runner-up advance to Quarterfinals
16&U Boys - 28 Teams - 7 pool winners + best runner-up advance to Quarterfinals
18&U Boys - 12 Teams - Top 2 from each pool + 2 best third-placed teams advance to Quarterfinals
12&U Girls - 5 Teams - 4th vs 5th qualification match, followed by Semifinals
14&U Girls - 12 Teams - Top 2 from each pool + 2 best third-placed teams advance to Quarterfinals
16&U Girls - 12 Teams - Top 2 from each pool + 2 best third-placed teams advance to Quarterfinals
18&U Girls - 6 Teams - Top 4 advance to Semifinals; 5th vs 6th classification match
Quarterfinals and Semifinals
For divisions with eight qualifying teams, teams will be seeded 1–8 before the Quarterfinals.
QF1: Seed 1 vs Seed 8
QF2: Seed 4 vs Seed 5
QF3: Seed 3 vs Seed 6
QF4: Seed 2 vs Seed 7
SF1: Winner QF1 vs Winner QF2
SF2: Winner QF3 vs Winner QF4
Seeding and Qualification
Teams will be ranked for playoff seeding using the following criteria:
Win–loss record
Points differential
Total points scored
Drawing of lots, if required
Wildcard qualification follows the existing APC rules:
Best second-placed teams: Lowest losing margin against their pool winner. If tied, most points scored against their pool winner.
Best third-placed teams: Lowest losing margin against their pool winner. If tied, lowest losing margin against their pool runner-up.
Wildcard teams occupy the lowest available quarterfinal seeds.
Championship and Classification Matches
Semifinal winners advance to the Championship Final, while semifinal losers compete in the Bronze Medal (3rd Place) Match.
For the 12&U Girls division, the 4th- and 5th-placed teams play a qualification match before the semifinals.
For the 18&U Girls division, the 5th- and 6th-placed teams play a classification match.
Teams that do not qualify for the Quarterfinals in multi-pool divisions will receive a consolation game, as provided in the applicable tournament format.
All matches are governed by the APC Singapore 2026 Rules & Regulations and Modified Playing Rules.