Millie Sutcliffe and Kiara McKeown are two rising basketball stars

Kiara McKeown and Millie Sutcliffe are not household names yet but the pair are well on their way after making several representative teams in the past year.

Both girls were selected to be part of the State Performance Program for the under 16s squad and McKeown is in with a chance of making the NSW Country side which will compete at the Australian Junior Championships.

McKeown admitted the last few months have been pretty hectic.

"It's been very busy, we went away for D-League in January which was a pretty good experience to play against the best girls in NSW," she said.

"Then we had SPP, which was a good experience to train with some of those girls."

Sutcliffe echoed McKeown's thoughts on the last few months and admitted she is enjoying the time back in the sport.

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"As Kiara said, it's been really busy with D-League, SPP and I've actually had Indigenous basketball," she said.

"So it's really good to be back into basketball and training with other girls while seeing some of my friends.

"We've been training really hard."

Both girls have also been competing in the under 15s Country D-League side, which aims to identify talented players with the NSW Waratah Junior Leagues by having them train, play and coach against each other in a tournament-like environment.

Sutcliffe said she is eager to play at the Indigenous National Basketball Tournament this year, especially after the competition was cancelled last year due to COVID-19.

"Last year it got postponed, we were meant to go to the Gold Coast but unfortunately it got cancelled so hopefully this year we can go away and play Nationals," she said.

"I love it, I love being with my friends and playing basketball on the court."

Both girls and a host of other Dubbo basketball talents have been training regularly with Claire Bynon, who is imparting some of her extensive knowledge of the game onto the next generation of players.

Sutcliffe said Bynon has been a big help for her own game and credited the mentor.

"As Wednesday trainings with Claire (Bynon) have been great, it's helped us keep active and learn," she said.

"A hundred per cent she's just been number one through everything, even when we want to train she's always been there."

For McKeown, she added even the local competition at Dubbo Sportsworld is improving, even if they have to come up against the boys sometimes.

"Even our local competition has put in a lot of work on Friday nights," she said.

"It's been pretty good even though we don't have much competition with the girls and stuff, it's still good to play against the boys every now and then."

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