BASKETBALL WITHOUT BORDERS ASIA 2025 – DAY 4 RECAP
The final day of Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia witnessed the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Valkyries win the boys’ and girls’ finals, respectively. Abdulla Mousa (Qatar) from the Hawks and Taryn Bond (Australia) from the Valkyries were awarded with the Kim Bohuny BWB Asia 2025 Camp MVP for the boys and girls division, respectively.
In the girls’ division, Bond scored 12 points to help the Valkyries edge the Phoenix Mercury, 16-15, in the girls’ championship. Led by BWB Asia coach Ronald Nored, the Hawks secured a dominant 41-22 victory in the boy’s finals against the Dallas Mavericks, who were paced by the combined 24 points from Jiwoon Yoon (South Korea) and Rob Celiz (Philippines).
New this year, BWB Asia 2025 implemented the late-game situations segment, which simulated each team taking part in multiple late-game scenarios within the last two-minutes of a game and an overtime situation where the first team to score wins.
Throughout the week, the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach programme hosted initiatives for various basketball stakeholders, including a BWB youth clinic for over 70 boys and girls from SportCares, multiple referee development sessions led by retired NBA referee Joey Crawford, and a coaches clinic led by Atlanta Hawks assistant coach Ronald Nored, Golden State Warriors assistant coach Khalid Robinson and Toronto Raptors assistant coach Vinay Bhavnani, which was attended by more than 60 coaches from the local community.
The 15th edition of BWB Asia is part of the NBA’s new multi-day immersive basketball and entertainment festival in Singapore that will culminate with the “NBA Rising Stars Invitational,” the league’s first regional high-school basketball tournament featuring boys’ and girls’ teams from 11 countries across Asia-Pacific from Wednesday, June 25 – Sunday, June 29.
Earlier in the day, BWB Asia featured a three-point competition for all participants, which also saw Mousa and Bond emerge as the boys’ and girls’ shootout champions, respectively. President of the World Association of Basketball Coaches Patrick Hunt presented Australians Koby Moir and Cheyenne Bobongie as the boys’ and girls’ winners of the Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award, respectively.
The full list of awards winners are as follows:
| Award | Boys | Girls | |||
| All-Stars |
|
|
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| Three-Point Champion | Abdulla Mousa (#20) | Taryn Bond (#23) | |||
| Defensive MVP | You-Cheng Jhou (#46) | Gia Ana Vukona (#21) | |||
| Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award | Koby Moir (#44) | Cheyenne Bobongie (#8) | |||
| Kim Bohuny Camp MVP | Abdulla Mousa (#20) | Taryn Bond (#23) |
Participant Quotes:
Singapore
Firdaus Nor Anuar (#49)
It was tough facing opponents from Australia, they’re more explosive but it’s a good experience for me to learn new stuff and gain from this experience so that I can shine in local leagues. I learnt more about being a leader and doing guard moves. Normally I’m a centre, but I learnt to play the guard position here so it was a good opportunity learning about the different positions. The most memorable experience was definitely at the hotel hanging out with my new friends from Qatar and the Philippines playing 2K together. I enjoyed making new friends. On court, I really enjoyed facing the opponents from different countries because they’re very good and learning from them is very memorable. I hope I will continue to play basketball in Division 1 in Singapore and share the love of the game with my family and friends while keeping a healthy lifestyle.
Tricia Lau (#25)
It was a very good and eye-opening experience for me and my friends from Singapore because we get to experience playing with the best players from their country and learn a lot from them. I learnt that we have a lot to work on – like energy levels are super important for a team. Every single person has their own role on the court and everyone cannot be stagnant and everyone has to do something. On court, I learnt we need to be more confident in ourselves, especially playing with people who are super talented. We have to have the confidence to take them on 1-on-1 and be more selfish with the ball. I also learnt that although I’m not able to contribute much on the offensive side, as long as I play my role defensively, I can contribute a lot to the team. A quote one of the coaches said was “defence creates offensive opportunities” and that really stuck with me. I will bring back this commitment to making my defence super good.
For the Rising Stars Invitational, I hope my team reaches the semi-finals. We’re grouped with Malaysia and Japan so that would definitely push us to a different level. Our team’s preparation has been going well. We’re learning how to deal with bigger people as we are a bit undersized. I play centre for my team so I definitely need to learn how to box out properly and guard the post. This camp helped me with meeting taller people and using this training to work on my defensive skills for RSI as well as be able to have different moves to get past bigger opponents while having the confidence to take on the 1-on-1s.
Australia
Harry Cook (#41)
The people that I met this week are just great people. I’ve made tons of new friends, from Thailand, Qatar, and many other countries. I never thought I’d be able to make this many friends and I cherish these connections. I’ve learnt to keep a cool head. Playing with people that are so good, you get a little ahead of yourself sometimes, but just knowing that you belong here and to play the way you know how to play. Don’t get ahead of yourself, take your time and just not rush anything. And finally, making the [BWB Asia 2025] All-Star team was pretty cool. It’s a great feeling to be at an NBA camp and be able to have the honour of being on an All-Star team – I really cherish that.
Taryn Bond (#23)
It’s just been an unreal experience to compete against the best in Asia. It’s surreal and amazing to get the chance to compete in a different country and to meet new girls. The camp also meant we have to get used to different coaching styles and adapting to players who don’t speak English. One of the highlights was probably winning the championship with my team. I love my team so much. We just played so well together as a team and fought hard to the end.
Indonesia
Caysey Hermawan (#19)
It was a unique experience because I’ve never experienced anything like this, meeting with lots of talented players around the world and amazing coaches from the NBA and WNBA. Other than that, I had so much fun making friends with everybody from all around the world and learning even more details about basketball that I’ve never learnt before. I’ve learnt that timing and spacing are really important. But the most important thing is teamwork because we won’t be able to win if only one person participates. Teamwork is the key to winning championships.
New Zealand
Cole Hopoi (#38)
It was great meeting heaps of guys from different countries, being able to play with them and bond with them on court too was great. I learnt it’s important to bond off the court too. Once you do that, on court it’s just easier to connect with your teammates and play with them. Being able to take in the experience and knowledge of the different NBA and WNBA coaches was great too. I can take it back home and use it for my development as well. It was just a good experience being able to learn from them. I really enjoyed making new friends and my time in Singapore.
Gia Ana Vukona (#21)
It was so awesome and cool getting to learn from all the NBA and WNBA players and being able to meet new people. I learnt that communication on court is really important and playing as a team, that really helps. Off the court, I learnt that meeting new people is awesome and I learnt how to communicate with people who can’t speak my language and still have a good game with them. Learning what other cultures are like was cool. The whole experience was great. I definitely did not expect to win the Defensive MVP award, I’m really grateful for it and I’m excited to go home to my family and share it with them.
