Northern Territory high performance youngsters Kaylani Duggan-Cole, Jayla Thorne and Lachlan O’Brien impress for Australia at the 2021 FIBA Under-15 Skills Challenge in Canberra
THEY are three of the Territory’s brightest young basketball prospects who recently represented Australia, and it could be just the first of more to come in the green and gold.
Local sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THEY are three of the Territory’s brightest young basketball prospects who recently represented Australia, and it could be just the first of more to come in the green and gold.
Kaylani Duggan-Cole, Jayla Thorne (both Tracy Village) and Lachlan O’Brien (Ansett) were selected to represent their country at the 2021 FIBA Under-15 Skills Challenge in Canberra late last month.
RELATED NT NEWS SPORT STORIES
They impressed Basketball Australia’s director of high performance, Peter Lonergan, as they pitted their skills virtually against players their own age from other countries, before their skills and drills work was uploaded to the FIBA YouTube channel.
Basketball NT’s high performance manager Rod Tremlett said his three high-performance program athletes were highly deserving of the opportunity.
“Kaylani and Jayla are so young, but are already playing in the DBA senior women’s league at 14,” Tremlett told the NT News.
“They’re bottom-age Territory under-16 athletes, so it’s really exciting knowing they’re going to get better over the next couple of years in that age group.
“And they played important roles in assisting our under-18 girls before they left for the recent national championships.
“Lachlan is a great talent and already has good height – he’s about six-foot-four at 15 years old. He’ll be pushing for selection in the NT under-16 boys’ side.”
Kaylani is relishing her time with the senior Jets outfit after her highly impressive League debut, her 15 points (3-7 three pointers) helping Tracy Village to a 60-56 win over Lightning in Round 1.
“The pace is faster and they’re bigger opponents. Yes (I enjoyed it),” she said.
NT footy community mourning death of popular player
The NT footy community is mourning following the death of a Top End player known for his silky skills and bubbly personality.
Preparations heat up for tortuous desert race near Alice Springs
Weeks out from the return of an iconic Red Centre race, last year’s Queen of the Desert is already out on the track – and she’s got a number of goals in mind. Read how preparations are going.