FORMER Shoalhaven Tigers junior Darcy Harding is just one of a host of impressive SEABL players that will represent Australia at the 3x3 Asia Cup from October 27-29 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
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The head of high performance coach development, Peter Lonergan, worked with a panel of SEABL coaches to determine the teams with Matt Paton from Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) and Nunawading Spectres coach and SEABL legend David Biwer to coach the women and men respectively.
Chantella Perera (Kilsyth Cobras), Carlie Smith (Bendigo Lady Braves), Sarah McAppion (Canberra Capitals Academy) and Isabelle Bourne (CoE) make up the women’s team while Owen Odigie (Kilsyth), Lucas Barker (Dandenong Rangers), Andrew Steel (Nunawading) and Darcy Harding (Albury/Wodonga Bandits) will represent the men.
“It’s exciting that SEABL, as one of our strongest domestic leagues, has athletes representing Australia in the Asia Cup,” general manager of high performance Jan Stirling said.
“The skill set package of these athletes was a focus for the selection panel and they are well suited to the 3x3 game.”
With 15 teams in the men’s competition, Australia must first traverse a qualifying draw against Turkmenistan and Malaysia while Chinese Taipei, Lebanon and India will meet in the other qualifying draw.
The top team from each of those pools as well as the third best ranked country will advance to join the nine teams already divided into Pool, A, B, C and D.
"These players will provide the toughness, athleticism and explosiveness that is required to compete with the best 3x3 countries in the world while it is also a great opportunity for coaches Matt and David," said general manager of competitions Paul Maley said.
For the women, Australia will take on Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan in Pool A with the top two teams from four pools advancing to the Quarter-Finals.
FIBA will live-stream the tournament via their FIBA 3x3 YouTube channel.
