Dougherty will play in the under-14s team at the top level junior event that will run until Tuesday.

The Championships are considered a strong pathway into the under-16 and under-18 state programs.

Horsham’s junior representative squad organiser Tony Sleep said it was a great opportunity for Dougherty to test himself against top quality opposition.

“We’re really excited to see him go,” Sleep said.

“We’ve had conversations about the talent we see in Hugh and he wants to get better all the time so this is the perfect pathway for him.”

Sleep was proud of having representatives from the Horsham Basketball Association at the Championships and at the Basketball Cup in Albury this week.

“It’s a lot of hard work to get there and the kids have done extraordinarily well to get there,” Sleep said. 

“Our small association three hours from the City, we tend to have a fairly good percentage of kids that get through based on our program here.”