Basketball Australia U18 and Junior Wheelchair National Championships 2024 day four live blog
Talks of replicating last year’s golden girls at the U18 Nationals have been backed up by action, with three SA Metro stars leading an unbeaten charge. Read more in the tournament live blog.
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An athletic giant who can slam dunk a full sized ring, the most-gifted 15-year-old in the country and one of the premier point guards in her age group have sparked SA Metro’s blistering unbeaten run to the Basketball Australia U18 National Championships.
Bottom-agers Aspen Crase and Keira Gardiner, along with tough, tall floor general Coco Hodges have powered a 5-0 run to the crossover rounds – and tournament favouritism.
Hodges admits the golden girls of last year’s U16 and U18 SA Metro National Champions are a tough act to follow.
But it’s a case of so far, so good for this year’s U18 group in Brisbane.
“The 16s obviously won gold last year and so did the 18s so it’s really exciting but it’s also a big act to follow,” Hodges said.
“We’re obviously hoping we can keep winning so we’re in the best position … in the finals and hopefully win a medal.”
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GOLDEN LESSONS
Gardiner, just 15, has torn up the tournament against kids almost three years her senior, while the high-flying Crase is likely the only girl at the tournament to have completed a slam dunk on a full sized ring.
It’s rare for bottom-aged players to have such a profound impact
And it’s lessons learned from last year’s U16 nationals – where both Crase and Gardiner helped power Metro to that tournament’s gold medal – that have carried over to the next level.
“The biggest difference has just probably been playing against bigger bodies and faster players who are a bit older and more experienced,” Crase said.
“Obviously we’ve had to earn our way up, we’re coming in as the younger ones.
“Keira’s really young, she’s only 15, so it’s crazy that she can be doing what she is doing.”
What Gardiner has been doing is simply stunning.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Listed at 189cm, Gardiner’s telescopic arms and legs make her look even longer on the court and that, along with a basketball IQ that belies her tender years has helped her lead the entire tournament in rebounding by a wide margin at 15 per game, to go along with 16.3 points and 4 steals – both top five.
The crisis of confidence she wrestled with before her bottom-aged U16 campaign is well and truly in the rear view, replaced with a bubbly self-assurance that this kid not only belongs, but might just be the most talented player in the entire tournament.
INJURIES AND A SLAM DUNK DREAM
Crase came off the bench in Metro’s tournament opening win over Queensland South to produce 9 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals and a block and was then elevated into the starting line-up, where she has played a key role in heavy minutes.
She’s had a tough recent run with injury after she ruptured her anterior talofibular ligament at last year’s East Coast Challenge, forcing her off the court for eight weeks – which meant she missed the National Performance Camp at the Centre of Excellence and much of the build up. to Brisbane.
“I’ve only been back playing for maybe three weeks before this, so I’ve been trying to get.
I’ve been trying to get back to my best really quickly,” she said.
It’s had an impact on the 183cm forward-centres athleticism, too – during the East Coast Challenge, the 15-year-old, who is only a couple of months older than Gardiner, was able to throw down her first dunk.
“Aspen can dunk it,” Gardiner confirmed.
Crase: “Nooooo, OK, so, before I did my ankle at East Coast, I had one successful dunk on the rings at NSW at training.”
“That was before my ankle, though, at the moment, I’m still working my way back, but I can still grab the ring.
Gardiner: “She can still do it with a tennis ball.”
Crase: “I’m getting closer, I’m working towards dunking again – I really want to be able to dunk and then to do it in a game.”
Gardiner, has also been hampered by a recent injury, forced to rest her Achilles due to overuse, but both are in Sapphires’ calculations for July’s FIBA U17 Junior World Cup in Mexico.
THESE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Captain Hodges, who stepped up in an 10-point win over arch rival Vic Metro with 15 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals, loves the youthful exuberance her more junior teammates have brought to the squad.
“We’ve got a really good mix of top age and bottom age players, and our bottom agers like Keira and Aspen have really stepped up and been really, really good for us in terms of scoring, rebounding and playing defence” Hodges said.
“So we have a really good mix here. We have lots of lots of potential in this group.
“I reckon a lot of girls, they’re long and lanky and haven’t really grown into their bodies yet.
“I’m very proud of them.”
Rivalries abound anywhere there’s a court and there are battle lines drawn all over SA’s domestic scene.
FORRESTVILLE METRO?
Both Crase and Gardiner are among seven girls in the Metro squad out of the powerhouse Forestville Eagles.
Hodges is the sole West Adelaide Bearcat.
But they’ve all come together with a common goal.
“There are some big rivalries but we have a really good bond and a really good friendship off the court, so it’s really great to play together,” Hodges said.
“We’re very selfless people because we love each other and we love playing together.”
SISTER ACT
The soon-to-be 17-year-old says she’s had a shining example to look up to throughout her young basketball career, sister Chloe is playing college ball in the US and she’s a lesson in resilience.
“My older sister is at Drexel University in Philadelphia and I look up to her a lot,” Coco said.
“Especially because she did her ACL a couple of years ago and she really inspires me just because of how strong she is mentally.
“She had to take a year off basketball and she also had to go through the Covid years, so she’s had it a little bit tough over there.”
So does Coco want to follow her sister’s path?
Maybe...
“I haven’t really decided, I mean, I’m a bit of a home girl so I’m not sure if I’d enjoy leaving, but we’ll see,” Coco said.
“I might go to college or I could just stay and play NBL1, you never know.”
HOOPS OVER NETTY
The Hodges sisters are elite at both basketball and netball – but hoops appears to have won out for Coco, too.
“I’ve always loved basketball but I’ve played a lot of netball too, so there’s a little bit of love for both of them,” she said.
“I’ve drifted more toward basketball because there are more opportunities than netball.”
Hodges, at 175cms, is blessed with great height for a point guard, which allows her to see over defences and her long arms and powerful build make her a nightmare for smaller point guards to contain – and get past at the other end.
“Having that length is definitely an advantage but it’s also a little bit tough, because I’m not always as fast and quick as the other smaller point guards,” Hodges said.
“Having that is an advantage in terms of finishing and around the rim and playing defence.
“It’s my absolute favourite, I love just rebounding and getting in the lanes, it comes really naturally to me.”
GREEN AND GOLDEN GIRL
Coco is fast becoming a fixture in the junior national team setup, helping the Sapphires to gold at last year’s U16 Asian Championship in Jordan, and participating in recent National Performance and junior Australian selection camps.
She’s gunning for a junior World Cup spot later this year but, on Wednesday in Brisbane, there’s one thing on her mind – beating the rival Vic Metro.
“It will definitely be tough, because to me, that’s a big one,” she said.
“If we can get that win, it would put us in a great position.”
‘DIFFERENT PATH’ NOT STOPPING BASKETBALL STAR’S SPORTING DREAM
The only sign of the harrowing tragedy Katelin Gunn has endured is the wheelchair she requires to get her around.
The 20-year-old South Australian’s life changed forever, five years ago, when her spinal cord was irreparably damaged in a serious car accident.
But, despite the resulting paralysis robbing her of the use of her legs, Katelin’s remains a remarkably positive person – and she says that’s been her disposition from the moment she woke up in the hospital bed.
That’s held the Australian IWBF AOZ 3x3 bronze medallist in good stead for coping with the mental and physical struggles of the dramatic change in almost every aspect of her life.
“I was only 15 when I had the accident so, yeah, it was a bit of a, I guess, my life kind of took a different perspective and I took a different path,” she said.
“My parents always say that if I wasn’t always high-spirited I wouldn’t be where I am today and back playing sport and going to university, and I believe that.”
Studying a Bachelor of Commerce at Uni SA, the former Scotch College football prodigy’s passion for the sport never wavered.
Her wheelchair has now become her weapon on the basketball court as an Australian junior representative who has teamed up with WA to battle it out for this year’s Kevin Coombs Cup at the Basketball Australian U18 & Junior Wheelchair National Championships in Brisbane.
The sports-mad teen was the inaugural captain of Scotch’s first women’s Aussie rules team who relished the physicality on the field. But, with footy out of the question, she said wheelchair basketball was the closest sport to emulating the rough and tumble of football.
“I grew up playing sport,” she said.
“I started netball when I was five. Coming from the country, sport was part of the community.
“I always wanted to get back into sport once I had recovered from the accident and I went to a come and try day for wheelchair basketball back in Adelaide, hopped in the chair for the first time and I just loved the fast-moving intensity, the team sport and the contact of it all.
“I was like, ‘this is for me’ and that’s where it started.”
With the 3x3 bronze the crowning glory of her young career so far, Katelin’s already been on two tours of Japan with the Gliders and went to her first U25 World Championships in October.
Captain of SA’s KCC team last year, her home state wasn’t able to pull together a squad at this year’s champs – so, for now, she’s an honorary Western Australian.
“WA recruited me and two other guys to play for them, so it meant I could still come to KCC,” the Adelaide Crows diehard said.
“I get to still play and get on the court and learn and build and have different coaching experiences and put it all together and play with different guys and see what happens.”
Before the accident, Katelin helped run the family farm on the Eyre Peninsula, 65kms out of Streaky Bay – about eight hours west of Adelaide.
Post accident, that was out of the question, but she’s still finding ways to help the family business. In the third of a Bachelor of Commerce, Katelin does almost all of the book work for the family farm.
The popularity of wheelchair basketball has exploded at a domestic level with the number of competitions and wheelchair participants on Ford Aussie Hoops programs growing exponentially across the country.
Originally published as Basketball Australia U18 and Junior Wheelchair National Championships 2024 day four live blog
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