Years of training and hard work has seen the Bathurst basketballer earn a place in the Australian Under 18s Emus squad for their training camp early next month.

If Cranston-Lown survives the final round of cuts at the three-day camp he’ll earn a ticket to the FIBA Under 18s Asian Championships to be held in Thailand from August 5 to 11.

Cranston-Lown’s selection comes on the back of an eye-catching Australian Under 20s Championships campaign in February.

The Bathurst player hit 42 per cent from three point range and ended his Central Coast tournament with a personal best score of 17 points against the NBA Global Academy team.

“It’s my biggest achievement so far. It was crazy to find out about it,” Cranston-Lown said of his selection.

“Every time I’ve been to training since then I’ve been thinking about it, sometimes nervously, but it’s great.

“I thought I had a great under 20s tournament but I didn’t really think I’d make it so it was really good to find out.”

Cranston-Lown is one of just three New South Wales players selected in the Australian squad of 15, with most hailing from Victoria.

Over July 1 to 3 the players will be put through their paces at the BA Centre of Excellence in Canberra.

“Their game style is a lot different to ours,” Cranston-Lown said of the Australian squad.

“They don’t really have sets. They just run and play the game quickly. I’ll have to adjust to that. We’ve got a few practice games before the tournament.”

The squad will be trimmed from 15 to 12 but even if Cranston-Lown misses the final team he’s got a fantastic tournament to fall back on.

Cranston-Lown also recently booked a place in the NSW Schoolboys side courtesy of his title-winning Independent Schools Association season with St Stanislaus’ College and his recent performance with Combined Independent Schools.

The national schoolboys tournament will be held in Darwin from August 11 and the Bathurst guard already has confirmed his place at the event.

Cranston-Lown will head over to the USA immediately after his three-day Canberra training run.

He’s embarking on another American tour, as he did last year, in the hopes of catching the attention of college selectors.

“This is a great pathway for me. This national selection can really help me for college,” he said. 

“Obviously if you can tell the colleges that you’ve made the Australian squad they’ll be a lot more interested.”