Live stream: Watch the best young ballers at Australian Basketball Country Junior Cup in January

The excitement is building as some of best junior players from Australia and New Zealand hit Albury-Wodonga for the Country Cup. Catch 48 games LIVE on KommunityTV from Tuesday.

The best regional basketballers in the country and from across the Tasman will take centre stage as the Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup returns from a two-year hiatus.

The tournament, which will be held in Albury-Wodonga from January 17-21, will be live streamed exclusively by KommunityTV for the first time.

The tournament, which has a proud history of producing Australian representatives, hosts the best country basketball talent from across nation’s southern states and New Zealand.

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More than 600 juniors will compete across three age groups, including under-14, under-16 and under-18, with teams from NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand involved.

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There are also representative teams from host city Albury-Wodonga ready to defend their home courts.

“It’s a tournament for country-based athletes,” Country Cup organiser Bert Bargeus said.

“We saw a need quite a few years ago to give country athletes the opportunity to play in a tournament-style competition they normally would never get.

“This is the 35th year that we’ve been running this event and it’s proved successful over the years. A lot of players have gone on to bigger and better things.”

Will the next Patrick Mills be among the players this year in the Country Cup? Patrick Mills, in action in 2016, played in the tournament as a junior. Picture: Adam Head

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The tournament honour roll includes two of the best players to ever play the game in Australia - Patty Mills and Lauren Jackson.

In more recent years, Adelaide Lightning and Opal guard Steph Talbot leads an exciting group of tournament alumni.

Bargeus said the competition prides itself on making sure there are plenty of chances for players to represent their state.

“It started as an under-16 tournament but now it has been set as an under-14, under-16 and under-18 tournament for boys and girls.

“In each age group we take two (state) teams of 10 in our event.

“It (with the numbers) may be the only opportunity for some players to represent their state.

“We’re pretty proud we can provide that opportunity.”

The Victorian Bushrangers won the under-18 Country Cup in the last edition in 2020.

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This year will see 10 teams play in under-14 girls and boys competition, with the same amount in under-18 boys and girls.

In under-16, there will be two pools of six, 12 teams, for both boys and girls.

Bargeus said people can expect to see some of the most talented juniors in the country playing quality basketball.

“I think they’ll see a really good standard of basketball and a very competitive standard,” he said.

“Even though it is a development-style tournament, everyone takes it very seriously.”

Victoria will enter the tournament as one of the favourites after claiming five of the six age group titles at the last event in 2020.

Kommunity TV will provide live streams of two courts during the tournament, Court 2 and Court 8, with a host of medal games on the tournament’s finals day.