Four Sapphires standouts from the U16 Women’s Asia Cup

The Sapphires made history in Malaysia last month, capping off a golden year for Aussie hoops and winning their fourth straight Asia Cup title.

There’s winning, there’s dominating. And then, there’s the Australian Sapphires.

With victory at last month’s FIBA Under-16 Women’s Asia Cup, Australia’s junior girls made history on multiple fronts. They were the last domino to fall in the “Golden Six”, with Australia’s national teams claiming six Asian titles in the span of seven months this year. They also became the first team to win the U16 tournament four consecutive times, peeling off 23 straight wins since their debut at the event in 2017 and sealing another undefeated campaign at this year’s edition in Malaysia.

The way that they did so was even more impressive, as they steamrolled every team in their path en route to the title. In the group stage, they won their three games by an average margin of 80 points; the knockout games brought a sterner test, but they ultimately blew past China by 28 and New Zealand by 36 to secure yet another gold medal.

That kind of destruction took a balanced team effort, with every player on the Sapphires roster logging double-digit minutes per game and six of them averaging nine or more points. With so many standouts up and down the roster, we’ve picked out just a few of the stars for discussion.