Keating has been selected as an emergency for Victoria Country’s under-16 representative side, one of four Victorian teams jetting off to Perth from July 3 to 10 to compete in the Australian Junior Basketball Championships.
Keating made his case at the Victorian under-16 state basketball combine on March 12, with confirmation coming through last Thursday of his inclusion to the 16-player Vic Country squad.
Rochester coach Luke Carnegie has mentored Keating from under-12s and says a strong work ethic has held the young star in good stead.
“(Harrison) has come a long way,” Carnegie said.
“He does a lot of hard work off the scene as well, it’s not just a matter of coming to training. You can track a kid’s development by how much they work away from training.
“He sees and reads the game very well.
“He listens, and he’s one of those kids where you only have to say something once and he’ll go away and work on it.”
It’s another state representation honour for Keating, after earning a spot at the Country-Metro Challenge alongside Rochester teammate William Hann.
Keating’s recent form has also been impeccable.
At the Victoria Junior Country Championships, Keating highlighted his class with four scores above 20 in his five games for Rochester’s under-16s, including 28 against Echuca in the semi-finals.
“I pretty much run the offence through him, which gets him open,” Carnegie said.
“But it also gets other players open — opponents defence has to change.
“It opens up the rest of the team to be involved, and I guess that’s where everyone was able to get on the scoreboard.”
Keating is the sole state representative out of Rochester, and the first to be picked out of the Country Basketball Association in quite some time.
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