Live stream: Coco Hodges, SA Metro eyeing second straight Basketball Australia Under-18s and Junior Wheelchair National Championships

They were dominant in 2023, now SA Metro girls want more national glory - and they will look to one of the country’s top young talents to lead them. Catch them LIVE from Sunday.

SA Metro’s U18 girls are ready to go back-to-back at this year’s Basketball Australia national championships after claiming the top prize at last season’s tournament.

The state’s U16 and U18 Metro girls teams both won gold during an unprecedented 2023 national championship run.

And with star point guard Coco Hodges, who has also represented Australia, leading the way, they are confident of adding to their title haul.

The championships begin on Sunday at Brendale, in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, and you can catch every game LIVE and EXCLUSIVE right here on Adelaide Now and KommunityTV.

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SA's U18 girls celebrate after their nationals success last year. Picture: Basketball SA

SA Metro coach Katherine McPhail said the team was feeling confident after a positive training period in preparation.

“I think getting our training done and arriving in Brisbane has settled the nerves a little bit,” McPhail said.

“Hitting the floor and getting used to the humidity, the girls are feeling good and we’re ready to go.

“We had a bit of an up and down time when we started preparing, with a few injuries over the course, but we’ve got almost everyone on the floor now and we’ve really been able to pick things up.”

The team boasts some of Australia’s top young basketball talents, with names like Kiera Gardiner, Abbey Jones and Zahlia Niemann set to act as a strong supporting cast for Hodges throughout the tournament.

With Vic Metro in the same pool, the players will have their work cut out for them.

Aspen Crase and Kiera Gardiner after SA's U16 nationals win in 2023.

McPhail said the girls were ready for the challenge.

“We’ve got a couple key outs but we’ve still got some elite players and we know we can be contenders.

“Coco is going to lead us. She’s now represented Australia and SA a number of times and we’ve also got some returning U18 players and U16 players who all won gold last year.

“It would be a huge achievement to go all the way – we know some teams want to knock us off after our success, and we’ve got Vic Metro in our pool, too, which is a great challenge for us.

“We absolutely want the players to learn as much as they can from this experience, but we’re also here to win and go as far as we can.”