4
Oct
U18 Asia Cup
Game Day: Gems 'Bonded' in hunt for golden threepeat
Australian guard Taryn Bond has been selected in the Gems 12-player team for the FIBA Under-18 Women's Asia Cup. FIBA.com
Kristi Harrower has trimmed her Gems squad to 12 for Malaysia, and one name was never on the list
- Australia open against the Philippines in Seremban at 2.30pm AEDT on Sunday, October 4
- The Gems are chasing a third straight title after winning in 2022 and 2024
- Taryn Bond was not in the 19-player extended squad and has made the 12
The Australian Gems start their bid for a third straight FIBA Under-18 Women's Asia Cup title today (Sunday, October 4, 2026), when they meet the Philippines at Arena Seremban in Malaysia.
Tip-off is 2.30pm AEDT, which is 2pm in Adelaide, 1.30pm in Brisbane and 11.30am in Perth. Australia then play New Zealand on Monday and Korea on Tuesday, both at the same times.
Australia won the title in 2022 and 2024, and arrive with eight players from the Sapphires side that won bronze at the FIBA Under-17 World Cup in July.
Four-time Olympian Kristi Harrower named the 12, and one of them was not in the squad that went to camp.
Taryn Bond is the bolter. The guard wasn't in the 19-player extended squad Basketball Australia confirmed before the selection camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
Bond competed at the 2026 Basketball Without Borders camp for the Chicago Sky and for the Golden State Valkyries in 2025.
Eight players from the extended squad will not travel: Reece Anticevic, Rebecca Donnelly, Mia Harvey, Abbey Jones, Addison Knight, Daisy Nousis, Kaila Proctor and Andie Smith.
The team is led by the two players who did the most damage at the Under-17 World Cup.
Madi Ryan made the All-Star Five there and has already played six FIBA junior tournaments since 2024, while Olivia Olechnowicz was named the tournament's Best Defensive Player and has come through the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence.
Queensland supplies six of the 12 and Victoria four. Cheyenne Bobongie has just signed with the Townsville Fire, and South Australia's Aspen Crase is already signed with the Adelaide Lightning.
The group stage runs from Sunday to Tuesday, and the knockout rounds follow, with the final on Saturday, October 10.
Australia hold a 16-0 record against New Zealand at U18 level and beat Korea by 33 in the group stage in 2024. The Philippines were promoted after winning Division B in 2024.
Harrower has the team for this window only. Renae Garlepp, who took the Gems to a silver medal at the 2025 FIBA Under-19 World Cup, is unavailable with WNBL coaching commitments at the Sydney Flames, and Harrower has stepped across from her own coaching season at Keilor Thunder in NBL1 South.
Harrower won a medal at every Olympics she played from Sydney in 2000 to London in 2012, is a three-time WNBL champion and a World Cup champion, and spent two seasons as head coach of the Southside Melbourne Flyers before the club moved on from her in March.
Every game is on FIBA's YouTube channel and on Courtside 1891 through DAZN.
Australian Gems Camp Squad
- Reece Anticevic – Western Australia (U17 Oceania Cup 2025)
- Cheyenne Bobongie – Queensland (U17 Oceania Cup 2025)
- Aspen Crase – South Australia (U17 Oceania Cup 2025)
- Rebecca Donnelly – New South Wales (U17 Oceania Cup 2025)
- Mia Harvey – Victoria
- Abbey Jones – South Australia
- Addison Knight – Victoria
- Jemyma Manyok – Queensland (U17 World Cup 2026, U17 Oceania Cup 2025, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Lily Mapp – Queensland (U17 World Cup 2026, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Daisy Nousis – Victoria
- Olivia Olechnowicz – Queensland (U17 World Cup 2026, U17 Oceania Cup 2025, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Kaila Proctor – New South Wales
- Sophie Richardson – Victoria (U17 World Cup 2026, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Madison Ryan – Victoria (U17 World Cup 2026, U19 World Cup 2025, U17 Oceania Cup 2025, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U17 World Cup 2024, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Eliza Shanahan – Victoria
- Jade Sherrington – Queensland (U17 World Cup 2026, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Andie Smith – Tasmania (U17 Oceania Cup 2025)
- Isabel Smith – Queensland (U17 World Cup 2026, U17 Oceania Cup 2025, U16 Asia Cup 2025, U15 Oceania Cup 2024)
- Matilda Trout – Victoria (U17 World Cup 2026, U16 Asia Cup 2025)
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