The 2026 Northern Basketball Tournament, taking place from July 16 to 26 at the Thanh Tri Commune General Service Center, Hanoi, with the participation of 16 teams, is a special season when teams first enter the field with a new squad after merging administrative boundaries. The new name, new force and new squad construction have made the group stage more unpredictable.
Hai Phong soon showed the strength of a championship contender right from the group stage, when they continuously had matches exceeding the milestone of scoring over 90 points, successively surpassing Tuyen Quang, 3F Phu Tho and Bac Ninh to top Group A.
The port city representative not only won with a large score, but also showed stability in the way they operated their playing style from high transition speed, good basketball control and sufficient squad depth to maintain intensity throughout the match.
Hai Phong's journey to the final continued with two landslide victories in the knockout round. In the quarterfinals, the port city team defeated Ninh Binh 101-56, and in the semi-finals they defeated Thanh Hoa with a score of 88-69.
In the remaining bracket, Hung Yen also wrote a memorable journey when they won all of the group stage to maintain the top spot in Group B. This team does not create a feeling of explosion in the way of Hai Phong, but has stability, discipline and good pressure resistance.
After a 110-69 victory over Nghe An in the quarterfinals, Hung Yen entered the semi-finals to meet Bac Ninh in a tense match until the last minutes. The 79-71 victory helped Hung Yen participate in the final of this tournament for the first time in history.
In the final match, Hai Phong started better, leading 25-16 after the first half and maintaining control for most of the time. Hung Yen had times of chasing, especially in the 2nd half, but the port city representative always knew how to respond at the right time. The turning point came in the 3rd half, when Hai Phong accelerated to widen the gap to 68-53. From there, Hai Phong maintained certainty in the last half and closed the final match with a 88-71 victory.
Hai Phong won the championship with an unbeaten journey, raising the Northern Open basketball championship cup for the first time. Nguyen Tien Duong, Hai Phong's important support from the group stage to the final, was honored as the best athlete of the season. Hung Yen closed the tournament with the runner-up title in their first appearance in the final.
Hanoi, the team that has held the throne for more than a decade, stopped from the quarterfinals after a 67-79 defeat to Bac Ninh. This is also the first time in more than 10 years that Hanoi has not been in the Top 4. Thanh Hoa closed the season with a bronze medal, after winning against Bac Ninh with a score of 94-68.
