PORT VILA (Vanuatu) - The Vanuatu Women's team put out an impressive third place performance in Conference One at the recent FIBA Oceania 3x3 Youth Nations League held in Palau. Leading the charge for their team's success was a young duo with a very special connection.
From the nation's capital of Port Vila in the Shefa province on the main island of Efate, Julia and Christina Kasten grew up together. Separated by two years, the pair could easily be mistaken as sisters or cousins, but in reality, Julia is Christina's auntie. The two grew up in a basketball family, with basketball running back through generations of Kasten men. Julia and Christina have broken new ground for the Kasten family, not only being the first women from the family to represent their country but playing a brand-new format of basketball.
The pair's journey with 3x3 basketball began when they were invited to the FIBA 3x3 High-Performance Camp held on the Gold Coast of Australia in 2024.
The event, which supported players on-court and off-court development, played an important role as a stepping stone for players preparing for the 2025 Palau Mini Games, which would be doubling as the FIBA 3x3 Youth Nations League for Oceania. Both Julia and Christina took valuable lessons from the camp.
"We learned many things like health nutrition, our basics, how to read court," Julia said. "The things that we learnt at Australia, we went back home, we applied them." Christina praised the camp for giving her a mental advantage,
"It boosted my [confidence]," Christina said, highlighting the importance of playing alongside and against "another level" of competition.
Off the back of the High-Performance Camp, the Kastens were more than prepared for their debut tournament. "It's the very first time for all of us, the four players in our team," Julia said. Despite this, the pair were filled with nothing but confidence and pride.
"It's very exciting because it's my first time representing my nation, and I'm proud to play," Christina said. Julia, on the other hand, saw the tournament from a learning perspective, "it's a good experience for us because we never took part in [previous events], so what we learn here, we take back to our country," she said.
Expectations were not high for the Vanuatu women's team, as their lack of experience compared to many of the other teams was a concern. However, what they lacked in experience, they made up for with indisputable talent. In their first game together, Vanuatu faced the host nation of Palau. Despite the support of the home crowd, Vanuatu came out victorious, with Christina and Julia combining for 10 of the teams 14 points. Though the team struggled through the rest of stop one and again at stop two, their first game together was a glimpse of things to come.
At stop three the team put together an impressive 21-5 win over the Marshall Islands, with Christina dominating with 11 points. Despite a loss to the powerhouse Fiji team later in the day, Vanuatu now had all the momentum they needed for the second half of the tournament.
The Kasten pair had built up their chemistry dramatically in just three days. Julia had settled into her role as the primary playmaker for the Vanuatu women, dictating plays and showing impressive court vision. Her signature hook passes gave defenders all sorts of problems, particularly when running the two-woman game with Christina. While Julia excelled in calling the plays, Christina's screening ability was the catalyst for much of Vanuatu's scoring, alongside her strengths in both rolling to the rim and popping out for perimeter shots. Both player's ability to read defenders set them apart from the rest, regularly creating wide open looks that other teams would dream of. This chemistry took full effect out of the mid-tournament rest day.
Christina took over out of the break, totalling an astounding 29 points at stop four, which she followed up with 27 points at stop five. Over the two-day span, she had outscored the next best scorer by 15 points. By the end of the tournament, she had climbed to an impressive total of 91 points, totalling just less than half of her team’s points. Christina's outstanding performance did not go unnoticed, as she was named to the All-Star 3 team as one of the top three players in the Women's Conference 1. Additionally, her performance was impressive enough to land her at the 250th spot amongst all women across the globe on the FIBA 3x3 Women's Rankings, an incredible feat given she is still only 19-years-old.
When asked about her success at the tournament, Christina brought it all back to where it started.
"Basketball, for me and my auntie, it's a generation thing. From our grandfather and great-grandfather, now to us, it's making our family proud," she said.
Her auntie doubled down, "It's because our family supports us a lot. Our family plays basketball a lot, they travel a lot with basketball, so they encourage us. This is the first time in our family that we travelled for 3x3 basketball, so this is a great opportunity for us to take part in this. Our family is really proud."
Not only is the Kasten family proud, but their confidence in these young women is also high as ever. Patrick Kasten, Christina’s father, was very thankful to the Vanuatu Basketball Federation, its supporting departments and councils, and the Vanuatu coaches for “giving [his] daughter this opportunity to prove herself in the Oceania rankings.” ‘Prove’ is a strong but intentional word, and Christina certainly proved herself at the FIBA 3x3 Youth Nations League. No doubt she will continue to prove to the region that Vanuatu is a basketball nation to fear.
While it was Christina named to the All-Star team, all four players on the Vanuatu team made valuable contributions to the team’s success. Julia finished the tournament with a solid 4.1 points-per-game to her name, showing impressive consistency throughout the whole tournament. Assists were not tracked, but if they were, Julia would certainly have been one of the leaders for the conference. Alongside the Kastens, Unaise Osea quietly put up 3.0 points per game of her own, while playing high-energy defence. Anne Touliu Sau was Vanuatu's fourth member and played an important facilitating role to allow her teammates to shine. When Osea was injured at stop five, Sau stepped up at stop six with a 9-point game, proving she is more than capable when needed.
Women's basketball has some fresh faces in Vanuatu, and these young stars are already committed to helping support the next generation of Vanuatu hoopers. When asked if she had a message for young players in her home nation, Christina said this:
"Playing basketball can take you around everywhere. No matter what people say, just follow your dream."