ABU DHABI (U.A.E.) - The Australia duo of Sienna Harvey and Jacob Furphy were named the Most Valuable Players of the 13th edition of the Basketball Without Borders Asia camp, which was held in Abu Dhabi.

Harvey and Furphy received the awards as the top players among the 80 high school age prospects - 40 boys and 40 girls - from more than 20 countries who competed from June 2-5 at the New York University campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

The campers from across Asia and the Middle East learned various valuable lessons on and off the court from current and former NBA players and coaches. Current NBA players Saddiq Bey (Atlanta Hawks) and Monte Morris (Washington Wizards) and NBA veterans Taj Gibson (most recently with the Washington Wizards) and Rodney McGruder (most recently with the Detroit Pistons) were on hand as well as NBA assistant coaches John Bryant (Chicago Bulls), Ryan Forehan-Kelly (Brooklyn Nets), Ryan Richman (Wizards), Sean Sweeney (Dallas Mavericks) and Mike Weinar (Indiana Pacers).

The campers went through a variety of activities, including movement efficiency drills, offensive and defensive skill stations, three-point contests, 5-on-5 games, and life skills and leadership development sessions.

Furphy helped the Boston team go undefeated in winning the boys championship along with his teammates: fellow Australian Emmett Adair, Julius Halaifonua and Ryan Hunt of New Zealand, Seungchae Gu and Jeonghyun Kim of Korea, Yu-Chen Lee of Chinese Taipei, Mohammad Ishan of India, Iran’s Mohammad Heydari and Teruchika Naito of Japan.

Roman Siulepa of Australia was the leading scorer among the boys campers with 8.7 points in 10 games for the Dallas team.

Harvey was named MVP even though her Liberty team did not win the girls competition, losing to the winning Aces in the Semi-Finals. The Aces team, which beat Sky 28-17 in the Final, was made up of Bolor-Erden Battsooj of Mongolia, Australian Teyahna Bond, Yeseul Choi and Minji Lee of Korea, Elise Gilbert and Rebecca Moors from New Zealand, Karina Kadyrova from Kyrgyzstan, Victoria Rapadas of Guam, Malaysia’s Erica Ng Mun Shuen and Jing Zhang of China, who ended up as the leading girls scorer with 5.5 points in 11 games.

The Girls All-Stars were: Teyahna Bond (Australia), Sienna Harvey (Australia), Sakura Horiuchi (Japan), Kavanah Lene (New Zealand), Rebecca Moors (New Zealand), Amy-Lee Pateman (New Zealand), Kanon Suzuki (Japan), Kamila Urmambetova (Kyrgyzstan), Shih Yun Wei (Chinese Taipei), Jing Zhang (China). 

Nurailym Jumakulova of Kazakhstan was given the Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award while Sakura Horiuchi of Japan was the Defensive MVP and Monique Bobongie from Australia was crowned 3-point champion.

The Boys All-Stars were: Emmett Adair (Australia), Jacob Furphy (Australia), Apl Mcandrei “Andy” Gemao (Philippines), Seungchae Gu (Korea), Julius Halaifonua (New Zealand), Tamatoa Adam Isaac (New Zealand), Hyeokjun Jang (Korea), Hamad Yassin Mousa (Qatar), Roman Siulepa (Australia), Kahuranaki Treacher (New Zealand).

The Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award went to Mohammed Al Raisi of Oman while Yuto Imanishi of Japan was the Defensive MVP and Jacob Furphy was crowned 3-point champion.

FIBA