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Young Hawke’s Bay basketballer Pahlyss Hokianga added another line to the CV when she was named in the All Star girls’ eight at the NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia-Pacific region camp in Western Australia.
The 16-year-old from Bridge Pā earlier this year became the youngest to ever playfor national women’s side the Tall Ferns when she was called into an Olympic Games qualifying tournament in China as replacement for injured star player Charlisse Leger-Walker. She was retained in a 12 for a Fiba Women’s World Cup pre-qualifying tournament played in Mexico in August.
She and Graecyn Parahi, another 16-year-old from Bridge Pā and a pupil at Napier Girls’ High School, were among 11 New Zealand girls and boys among the 60 players at the latest camp in Perth last weekend. Both featured in a “Houston Comets” selection which beat “Phoenix Mercury” in the final of a girls’ competition played as part of the camp.
The last day of the camp included a Q&A session with former NBA players Aron Baynes, Brandon Knight and Terry Porter, and four-time Women’s NBA champion and now coach Cynthia Cooper, who played for Houston Comets late in her career on the courts.
The Tall Ferns are now targeting the Asia Cup in 2025 with further hopes of, in 2026, being the first New Zealand team in a World Cup tournament since the single previous appearance in Australia in 1994.
Graecyn Parahi was also last week named among 24 players for a New Zealand secondary schoolgirls’ netball camp being held on October 25-28.
