Tauranga's Briarley Rogers has been on the national basketball radar for some time, now she's raised her profile again with selection in the New Zealand women's team for the FIBA 3x3 Under 18 Asia Cup.

She jets out next week for the tournament in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, with teammates Arielle Williams-Mackey of Waikato, and Tauranga-born Kay Phillips, who is now based in Australia along with fourth team member Emilee Tahata.

It's all come about in a rush for the year 13 Aquinas College student, who is no stranger to the black uniform having made the New Zealand team last year that qualified for the under 17 World Cup in India.

'It's all very sudden and new,” says Tauranga City Basketball General Manager Mark Rogers. 'The team was only announced last week, so it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.”

Having been put together so recently the team has not much time to prepare together.

'No, very short preparation. I suppose it's a learning curve for basketball in New Zealand too – it's the first one of these events we've been to.

'They've got a camp starting Sunday in Auckland, a three day camp with the four players, then they're off to Malaysia on Tuesday.”

The four-day tournament begins on Thursday.

Briarley will at least have some familiarity with Kay, who played in Tauranga's women's team and under 23 team before making the move across the Tasman.

Being an all-rounder, with a particular penchant for putting the ball in the hoop, she's a natural for the 3x3 – pronounced three on three – game, says Mark.

'She's a very good shooter. In 3x3 you only get a 12 second shot clock so that means you've got to shoot the ball a lot, so that's a positive for Briarley. And she's very good in terms of distributing and passing. The game suits her, you need to be able to do everything. There's nowhere to hide on a 3x3 court.”

Fitness is key to success in the game too, he says.

'And it's a different type of fitness to the traditional game. It's definitely more short, sharp, and explosive. Games are only 12 minutes, 15 minutes max.”

Selection in the team will further boost her chances of reaching her goal – a college scholarship in the US.

'That's something that she'll start pursuing once she finishes school here,” says Mark. 'There's about 130 Kiwi kids on scholarships in America at the moment so it's a pathway that's getting a lot of traction these days. There's a lot of interest in kiwi girls and boys. And with them performing on international stages like these Asian Games and Worlds it gets people out there to be seen.”

The tournament is a new experience for New Zealand, says Mark, so there's no knowing how the team will go.

'It's the first time so really no idea. It'll be exciting to watch. It'll all be livestreamed on the internet so it'll be interesting to watch it and see how they go. We're hoping that they'll go really well.”

Team coach Justine Reed says she's targeting a top four spot, and potentially higher.

'We have a bunch of newcomers to 3x3 with two of the players joining us from Australia. We have managed to get a group of girls that I believe will be competitive. Each girl has a very different skill set which I think will complement each other, but also enable us to look at a number of different options.

'If we are able to get our combinations right and play to each other's strengths, we could make the top four,” she says.

Tournament information and livestreaming is available on http://www.fiba.basketball/asia/3x3U18/2018