## 5 Discussion  
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between BC and physical and performance-related variables, particularly the effect of BF% and FFM of male and female U-14 basketball players on physical tests and game performance indicators after removing the maturity effect. Our results indicate that BC has an impact on physical tests and game performance in male and female U-14 basketball players. Morphological descriptive statistics (see Table 2) showed that male players were heavier, had more FFM and less BF%, and had a lower BF index than female players. These results align with previous research that pointed out that males have greater BM and FFM, and less BF content compared to their female peers [3; 19]. These higher values of BF% in females are mainly due to biological differences such as evolutionary benefits associated with reproduction, pregnancy, and hormonal differences--such as higher estrogen [3]. It is worth mentioning that the FFM sex-related differences may also be explained by cultural factors, such as less attention given to specific strength training with young female players compared to their male counterparts [37] or women's fear of becoming overly muscular [38]. The literature highlights that body fat has an impact on speed, agility, and anaerobic tests performed with and without a ball [8], and it is considered to be an important factor for basketball individuals [14] and team performance [12]. In fact, in a previous study with adolescent male basketball players, significant differences in BF% were found between players from finalists and lower-ranked teams, with higher values of adjoosities for lower-classified players [12]. In the present study, the BF% of male players was positively and significantly correlated with speed and COD speed, and negatively correlated with height and relative power of CMJ and CMJ-S. Regarding jumping ability, significant differences were observed between HBF and other players in jump height and relative power, with HBF players jumping less than LBF (\(-4.31\) cm and \(-5.02\) cm) and RBF (\(-2.26\) cm and \(-2.92\) cm) players in CMJ and CMJ-S, respectively. HBF male players were also significantly slower in the 20 m speed test (\(-0.14\) s and \(-0.11\) s) and in the T-test (\(-0.38\) s and \(-0.30\) s) than LBF and RBF players, respectively. The BF% of female players revealed a significantly positive correlation with SUM HG and the 2 kg MBT test, but a negative relationship with height and relative power of CMJ and CMJ-S. Consistent with the ANCOVA results observed in male players, HBF female players performed significantly lower jump heights (\(-2.03\) cm), had significantly less relative power (\(-0.43\) W\(\cdot\)kg\({}^{-1}\)) in CMJ, and were significantly slower in the T-test (\(+0.33\) s) than LBF players. In addition, HBF female players threw the 2 kg medicine ball significantly further than LBF (\(+27\) cm) and RBF (\(+17\) cm) players. Regarding the association between BF% and jumping ability, our results are consistent with the findings of previous research, in which the BF% is negatively correlated with players' jump height in male youth [8] and professional [39] basketball. It is reasonable to suppose that higher adiposity affects players' running and jumping abilities, which, in turn, may have a negative impact on game performance in basketball [25; 39]. Regarding the basketball performance of male players, BF% showed a small negative correlation with PIR/game, PIR/min, points/game, and minutes played, where LBF players showed higher values of PIR/game (+2.45), PIR/min (+0.17), points/game (+1.60), points/min (+0.19), and minutes played per game (+2.31 min) than their HBF peers. It should be noted that no differences in height or FFM were observed between the BF% groups, meaning that the differences in players' game performance were mainly due to differences in the athletes' body fat.