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YOUNG Bendigo Braves Piper Dunlop and Dyson Daniels will play for Australia at the FIBA Under-15 Oceania Championships.
The talented pair, who won silver medals at this year’s Australian Under-16 Basketball Championships with Victoria Country, was this week named in their respective teams for the tournament, to be played in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from December 3-8.
Their national selection has capped a stunning year for the duo and has presented them with an amazing opportunity in their basketball pathway.
Under the new FIBA competition system, this is the first step for the Australian Sapphires and Crocs on their way to the 2020 Under-17 World Cups.
If they finish in the top four of the Oceania Championship, Australia will qualify for the Under-16 Asian Championships next year with a top-four finish in the tournament securing a place at the Under-17 World Cup.
All 24 athletes (12 female and 12 male) competed at this year’s national under-16 championships on the Sunshine Coast, where Victoria Metro defeated Victoria Country in both grand finals.
Dunlop averaged 14.43 points and finished as the tournament’s leading rebounder with 14.86 per game.
Daniels averaged 7.73ppg, 3.83 rpg and 2.17apg.
His new national head coach Justin Schueller said he was looking forward to getting the team together.
“I’m extremely excited to work with this young group of men, all of which show so much promise for their international careers,” Schueller said.
“Last campaign we were able to be the first to qualify through Asia, and this group will be the first to go through the new three-year cycle.
“We want to have a sense of team, play the game the right way and have a defensive edge. The side we have selected will allow this to happen organically.”
Girls head coach Tracy York was also excited about what laid ahead.
“This will be the youngest group to represent Australia and the girls’ team is versatile and quick which suits the Oceania style of play,” she said.
“We look forward to the opportunity of representing Australia and having a successful tournament as we move through the qualifying stage.”
Both the boys and girls teams will take on New Zealand, Guam and Samoa in the group stage before the all-important quarter finals, which will see four winners advance to the semi-finals, while also booking a place in the Under-16 Asian Championships.
Dunlop and Daniels’ selections follow their participation last month in a Basketball Australia development camp, at the Centre of Excellence.
The camp brought together 40 of Australia’s top junior basketballers for four days of intensive training, under the eye of the Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence coaches and identified network coaches from around Australia.