The Rochester teenager, playing his first season with the club, has repaid the faith shown in him by the Braves coaching staff with a series of dominant performances.
He set an early tone with a game-high 19 points in the opening round of the season the haul including a trifecta of three-pointers against Dandenong.
It was the catalyst of a 73-47 win to start the season — now into its sixth week. On Friday night the team had another convincing win, 61-32 against Diamond Valley.
Keating and the Braves sit fourth on the ladder, one of three teams in the 10-club competition that have won three games this season.
The team’s biggest test of the season comes on May 26 when they tackle competition leader Sunbury, which has four state players in its ranks.
Keating narrowly missed a place in the state team and will have a point to prove against the highly ranked opposition, which is led by the player probably tipped him out of the guard role.
Sunbury is the only unbeaten team, with Sandringham second, with Casey sitting third.
In a second-round meeting between Bendigo and Sandringham the Braves jumped to a 17-4 quarter-time lead and still led by a point at the final change before eventually losing by eight, 49-56.
Keating shot nine points in the match, the second highest return for his team in the low-scoring match.
He has scored 80 points (including nine three-point conversions) in the six rounds so far this season, including a pair of 19-point games and a game-high 15 points in a nine-point win against Knox in round four.
The Braves lost by just one point to Casey in a thrilling round-five clash when Keating had a rare single-figure points return.
Coach Cathy Manderson said her team had been competitive at state level in previous years, half of her team having played together two years ago.
Keating is in his first year with the Braves, having previously played at association level with Rochester.
“Harro has really found his groove with the team. They all trust him to make the right decisions and he is starting to understand how everyone else plays,” Manderson said.
“He wanted to test himself at the higher level and we are thrilled to have him.”
She said the state league was a faster brand of basketball and the boys involved were bigger and faster and stronger than what the Rochester teenager was used to.
“We have a well-rounded team and we go 10 players deep, but Harro is one of our most consistent in terms of the numbers he puts up,” she said.
The junior coach described Keating as an exceptional passer and “pretty sneaky”, saying he was not a “one-trick pony” and if he was not scoring he could impact the game by sharing the ball around.
“He is a difficult prospect for other teams to guard. He is a little unorthodox and plays very loose,” Manderson said.
“There have been games where he hasn’t scored as much, but has had just as much impact on the game.”
Several VJBL Under-16 players are either in metro or country state squads and some were even involved in national pathways.
The Braves are one of 20 teams involved in two pools of 10.
“Once the teams in both pools play each other once they will split again, the top five teams from both pools cut back to five,” Manderson said.
“The bottom five will form a reserve competition. I’d like to see us in that top bracket.”
