PORTLAND, Ore. – Three past and present Portland Pilots Women's Basketball players will join the New Zealand national team for the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualification Tournament: Florence Dallow, Pahlys Hokianga and Emme Shearer.
The Tall Ferns will play in the eight-team tournament from Aug. 17-23 in Guadalajara, Mexico. New Zealand competes in Group A with Brazil, Argentina and South Sudan. The tournament is a single round-robin format with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals. The championship game will be played on Aug. 23.
"We are so proud of all three of these Pilots," Portland head coach Michael Meek said. "Watching Emme's growth over the five years she played at the University of Portland was remarkable, and Flo is very much on that same path. Pahlyss already has qualities that make her special, and we believe she has a tremendous future ahead of her. All three are the kind of people and teammates who make everyone around them better, which makes their impact on a team even greater. It is a tremendous honor for them to represent their national team, and we are excited to watch them grow and broaden their basketball journey's."
Dallow earns her first call up to the senior team after playing with New Zealand at both the U15 and U18 level. With the Pilots this past season, Dallow as a key player, averaging 9.9 points per game along with 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals. Against Pepperdine this year, she became the first Pilot and first WCC player in the 2000s to post a statline of at least 15 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and five steals in a single game and one of just 38 players in NCAA history to do so in that span. She earned All-WCC Honorable Mention.
Hokianga joins the Pilots this season as a freshman out of Hawkes Bay. Hokianga played with the senior national team last summer at the 2025 FIBA Women's Asia Cup, playing with Shearer at the tournament as one of the team's youngest players. At Tauranga Girls College, she led her team three times to nationals and led the nation in scoring in 2025 at 33.5 points per game.
Shearer played with the Pilots from 2020-25 and had a storied career with Portland. A two-time All-WCC first team selection, Shearer was a part of the 2023 and 2024 WCC Tournament championship squads and also led the Pilots to a 31-5 record in the 2024-25 season, clinching a WCC regular season title for Portland and achieving their winningest season ever. Shearer finished her career as the all-time leader in games played (158) and started (135) and is also third all-time in minutes (3,810), fourth in steals (289), fifth in both points (1,688) and field goals (615), seventh in three-pointers (153) and 10
th in free throws (305).
New Zealand opens the tournament against Argentina on Aug. 17 at 1:45 p.m. PDT.
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