North Harbour heads the group of 21 associations to qualify teams for Basketball New Zealand's U19 and U17 National Championships, following zone premiership tournaments in late March.

Harbour qualifed five teams and have three as top seeds out of zone one for the first age-group championships of the year from May 29-June 1, doubling up with two teams qualified in the U17 boys.

Zone one combatant Waitakere City, Waikato and Western Bay of Plenty out of zone two and zone fours Nelson and Otago were the other associations to qualify teams for each of the four championships.

The BBNZ U19 Championships will be contested in Nelson and the BBNZ U17 Championships in Palmerston North, both tournaments from Friday, May 29 to Monday, June 1.

Harbour, the defending U17 and U19 boys champions, has the top-seeded teams from zone one in U17 boys and girls and U19 boys. Harbour also finished runner-up in the U19 girls zone one premiership and had Harbour Development team place fourth in the U17 boys.

Waikato was the pick of zone two, garnering top seeds in the U17 boys and girls, and U19 girls, while finishing runner-up in the U19 boys. Nelson won both zone four titles in the U17 grade and also finished runner-up in the U19 girls.

Among the associations to send three teams to the nationals were zone two's Counties Manukau, zone three contenders Wellington, Hawkes Bay and New Plymouth, and the South Islands Canterbury and North Canterbury.

Other associations to qualify at least one team include Auckland, West Auckland, Tai Tokerau, Rotorua, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Southland.

Associations have until Friday, April 24 to confirm their teams participation at the nationals, with entry payment and final rosters due to BBNZ by Friday, May 1.