A day after a pair of Otago Boys' High School players made the Junior Tall Blacks, Otago's Whitnee Wehi has been picked for the Junior Tall Ferns to contest the Oceania championships in Fiji next month.
Wehi, who lived in Dunedin about 10 years ago before moving to Australia, joins Sam Timmins and Joe Cook-Green as Otago representatives in the junior sides.
While Wehi helped John Paul College win the 2012 Australian schools championships with 22 points against Rowville Senior Girls in the final, she also helped the Otago under-19 team finish third at the national championships in July.
After a few standout performances, forward Wehi and guard Aleisha Ruske were named in the tournament team.
Wehi is not the only Otago connection in the team.
Former Otago Nugget Brent Matehaere is the coach, and Otago Gold Rush captain Janet Main is the physiotherapist.
Matehaere, who teaches at Otago Boys' High School and managed the Otago Boys' team that won the school's first national secondary schools title in Palmerston North last month, picked the 10-strong team from a wider training squad that trained in Auckland this week.
He had to make a ''tough'' decision and leave Wuanyei Ah-Hing (Waitakere) and Ella Fotu (North Harbour) out of the final roster, and he said there were tears as they left camp.
''It probably came down to the best team fit for what we are looking to do in Fiji,'' he said.
''So the two girls that have missed out were just off the mark. By no means does this mean they are not quality basketballers.''
The Junior Tall Ferns are in pool B with Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.
The team leaves for Fiji on the same flight as the Junior Tall Blacks tomorrow and plays the Solomon Islands in its first game on Monday.
The championships run from December 1 to 6.
