The University of Papua New Guinea Basketball Association (UPNGBA) has entered its sixth season with eight teams up for competition.
From the eight participating teams, four teams are from the schools within the main campus at Waigani while four other participating teams are from schools outside of the campus.
Schools within the UPNG main campus are the School of Business and Publish Policy Eagles, School of Law – City Counsels, School of Natural and Physical Science Atoms, School of Humanity and Social Science Scorpions.
Other campuses include Schools of Medical and Health Science Medics, Port Moresby Business College Bucks, IBS University Hammers and PM Lakers.
UPNGBA newly elected president Solomon Luma while addressing the teams stated that this year’s season has grown with one more team joining the competition.
“I am happy to announce that me and my executives have officially expanded our competition this year. Last year we hosted 7 teams in our competition for the first time, now we are hosting 8 teams for the first time in our association history,” Luman said.
Luman added that the main aim of the UPNGBA is to give UPNG students a chance to experience quality Basketball and expose the school (UPNG) and its students to the sport.
“However over the years we’ve become the go to tournament for Tertiary institutions who want to play basketball and we take pride in that,” he said.
Luma emphasized the UPNGBA’sObjective of promoting basketball amongst youths and peers, through the wonderful game of basketball, fostering a conducive sporting environment that advocates on mental and physical health among the association members, apart from studying.
“We just want everyone to enjoy the sport that is Basketball, meet and network with like minded people, that’s our aim,” he said.
“Last year was a very successful season, with a bit of bumps and curves along the road. However, we hosted a successful season having 7 teams participate. I give credit to the former executives President James Baida and his team.
We had about 14 rounds and 2 weeks of finals which were successful, with IBSU Hammers winning the Male division and SOL City Counsels winning the female division,” Luma said.
He added that such sporting activities brough people together and built networking among like-minded people.
“You meet a lot of great people and to me that’s the importance of the sport in UPNG campus. The court is so small compared to a Rugby or soccer field, that you end up just becoming close to people you see on that court. ”
Meanwhile, in order to strengthen the competition the newly appointed UPNGBA were also announced. The 2026 UPNGBA newly elected executives are; President Solomon Luman a 3rd year Banking and finance student, Vice President Agnes Urupua a 3rd year Law student, Secretary Tinut Kapigeno a 4th year Economics student and Treasurer Jemimah Emma a 3rd year Accounting student.
The competition also has three new executives for this year – Head Coordinators of the Match, Fundraising and Events Committees. Head of Match Committee Atira Basil, Head of the Fundraising Committee Nialapan Karol and Events Committee head is yet to be elected.