Bourne Leads Australia Over Japan at FIBA Asian Cup

Isabelle Bourne, a former Nebraska Cornhusker women's basketball star, scored eight points and pulled down three rebounds in Australia's 88-79 win over Japan for the FIBA Asia Cup title Sunday morning in China.

For the Australian Opals, it was their first FIBA Asia Cup win in the team's young history. Australia, Japan, China, Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines have all qualified for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 Qualifying Tournaments. As the winners of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2025, Australia will receive automatic qualification for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 in Berlin, Germany.

Bourne averaged 6.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.0 steal off the bench to help Australia to a perfect 5-0 record.

On Sunday, Bourne drained both of her three-point attempts and sank both of her free throws to finish with eight points in just over 11 minutes. She also chimed in with two assists, one blocked shot and one steal.

Last Sunday, Bourne began the Asia Cup with eight points and four rebounds in just under 15 minutes of action in Australia's 115-39 pounding of the Philippines. The next day she followed with 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in a lopsided 113-34 victory over Lebanon.

Australia followed with an 86-73 victory over Korea on Saturday to advance to Sunday's title game. Bourne managed one point and one rebound in two minutes of action in the win over Korea.

Bourne was a three-time honorable-mention All-Big Ten forward and three-time co-captain for the Cornhuskers (2021, 2022, 2023), Bourne scored 1,221 points and grabbed 648 rebounds during her four-year career at Nebraska.

Bourne averaged 13 points per game in her second season with the Adelaide Lightning in Australia's WNBL in 2024-25. She recently signed a two-year contract with the Southside Flyers in the WNBL for 2025-26. Prior to playing with the Australian Opals in the Asia Cup, Bourne was playing with the Keilor Thunder in NBL1, where she ranked second in the league in scoring (23.5 ppg) while adding 9.1 rebounds per game.