WU16 – Ten player make debut at Baltic Sea Basketball Cup 2025 for Finland
Last year the Finland WU16 (and WU17 at a World Cup year) had a superb season, which culminated in the Finland WU16 winning the WU16 EuroBasket and thus also bringing home the FIRST European Championship in ANY age group for Finland in basketball
But time waits for no-one – and this January saw the first international tournament of 2025, and at the Baltic Sea Basketball Cup in Tallinn – the Finnish WU16 team had no less than TEN players making their debut for the Finnish National team!!
Finnish Hoops Media was there to capture the players making their debut for the National Team – even if some will say that ‘ but there is the U15 national team ..’. True – but Spain has U13 National teams .. but FIBA competitions start from U16 level – so as far I know.. that is the first ‘official’ age group to have national team games.
The ten players who made their debut are :
- #4 Lilja Nyström (name fixed as apparently the BSBC official stats had her name misspelled – apologies!)
- #5 Aisla Tikkanen
- #6 Matilda Suokas
- #8 Linnea Teivaanmäki
- #9 Veronika Nanje
- #12 Maija Honkonen
- #13 Veera Vartia
- #14 Mona Kettunen
- #15 Nelli Kivioja
- #20 Oona Hiltunen
The two players who have already played for Finland at U16 level are Ida Riihijärvi and Michelle Peter.
Now – if you are hoping for a detailed scout report of each player, you will be disappointed. I just take photos and make my own observations (and sometimes players whose actions on court are top level, might not make the best photos.. and for me – it’s the photos and videos that matter..)
What is always great about the youth national teams, and what the senior men and women team could learn about – is that you CAN show emotion on the bench .. often times we Finns tend to hold back little and the emotions can be shown internally.
With the WU16 team of 2025 – I really loved the way the bench lived each possession and on the court there were high fives and plenty of emotions/celebrations. Girls – keep this with you when you progress through the age groups.. we photographer and videographers really appreciate it!
Each of the 12 players in the WU16 team got on the score sheet – which is great to see, Finland’s strength always is when we have a big roster of players who can ALL contribute – and when we play ‘the Susi-style’ of basketball.
Where as the Finland hosting Women’s Eurobasket in 2027 will come too soon for these players – although, never count of for someone at 18 years old making it to the roster!! The future for Finnish women’s basketball looks bright with the Women’s team taking steps in the right direction and players like Awak Kuier, Elina Aarnisalo and many more only starting their careers.. so look forward to seeing Susiladies taking the step to a EuroBasket Women regular appearances from 2027 (or 2025 !!) onwards.
At the tournanent Finland had three very different games, the opening game vs Latvia was always going to be tough with Latvia having a very strong team – as the 78-61 scoreline shows, then came the Estonia game where Finland has success on the court and never took their foot off the gas and ran away with the game 67-45, finally the game that showed how the team grew during the long weekend in Tallinn – end to end action in a game vs Sweden and despite the strong comeback by the Swedish team – Finland WU16 held on to win by three points 70-67.
Welcome to Wolf-family – and I hope to capture many more memories with this team and these players in the years to come!
