Basketball Australia U18 Nationals, Kevin Coombs Cup live stream: NSW girls out to continue golden run (U18 & Kevin Coombs Nationals)

NSW are riding the crest of an Australian girls title wave - and with players who know how to win at the top level, could the success continue at the U18 nationals? See them LIVE from Sunday.

They are the U16 and U20 women’s champions, can NSW now squeeze in the U18 title to make it a clean sweep of national titles?

Now if you are Victorian, then holding all three at once is hardly unique, but for the Blues it would represent a major first.

They last won the U18 titles in Perth back in 2012, but four weeks after Isla Juffermans and Carla Pittman led NSW to an impressive win at the U20 nationals in Geelong, and seven months since the U16 girls broke a 48-year title drought of their own, confidence in the camp is sky high.

Thirty state teams from right across Australia will battle it out for national glory at the U18 nationals and Kevin Coombs Cup at the Brisbane home of the Northside Wizards, over eight huge days from April 8-16, with all 119 matches live streamed on KommunityTV.

Jessie May Hall is certainly a player to watch.

Adding to to the NSW optimism is the strong contingent from last year’s U16 championship team - and head coach Renae Garlepp is relishing the challenge.

Six players from that team - Erica Finney, Zoe Jackson and Ruby Perkins from Norths Bears, Lucy Mead and Freya Bijkerk from Manly Warringah and Bankstown’s Jessie-May Hall - have been selected to represent NSW Metro.

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Hall, Perkins, Mead and Jackson all went on to represent Australia at the U15 Oceania Championships in Guam.

Hall, especially, is expected to be a massive inclusion thanks to her impressive scoring ability. She averaged 24 points per game at the Oceania Championships.

NSW player Zoe Jackson.

Ruby Perkins will head to Brisbane.

Coach Garlepp said despite a steep learning curve for her younger players, they’re definitely up for the battle.

“There is a bit of a step up from 16s to 18s in terms of basketball IQ, physicality and how the game is played, however, they’re all super excited for the challenge” she said.

Joining the under age girls are three players returning from last year’s sixth-place finish, along with Manly player Opal Bird, who is also a member of the Centre of Excellence.

“She hasn’t really played much basketball in the last two years,” Garlepp said.

“So we still have to figure out how she fits back into the fold.”

Lucy Mead was part of the U16 title-winning team last year.

Familiarity will be key for NSW with all 10 players coming from just three clubs - Norths, Manly and Bankstown.

“Whether they’re top age or bottom age, most of them have actually played with each other before, so the cohesion was seamless,” Garlepp said.

The coach admitted there isn’t just one team this year that they’re worried about, and that every game will be a new challenge.

“We know that it’s definitely going to be tough, there’s some incredible bottom age talent and I think across the country it’s going to be a really tough nationals,” she said.

NSW Metro’s campaign tips off on Sunday, April 9 against the ACT.