In their final game of the tournament, New Zealand were beaten 80-70 by Argentina in the 11th-12th place classification game at the FIBA Under 17 Basketball World Cup in Spain on Sunday night.
Again without the services of Nic Book New Zealand made a sluggish start trailing 23-14 at quarter time. Outscored 11-1 at the start of the second, a brace of Hunter Trego threes and 6 points from Julius Halaifonua dragged the Kiwis back into the contest – down 47-36 at half-time.
Having trailed by as many as 20 points, New Zealand clawed their way back into contention in the third – coming within three points (56-53) ahead of the final quarter. The situation improved further when George Turner made an off-balance finish for an And-1 play, to put the Kiwis ahead 61-58.
The Trego twins combined – Phoenix with the 3-point make from a Hunter assist – to put New Zealand in front 64-62.
The lead changed hand on five occasions in three minutes, Dante Matakatea’s free-throw making it 65-64 in New Zealand’s favour with 5:24 to play. However, Argentina then grabbed the lead – reeling off ten unanswered points to take the game away from the Kiwis. There was time for Kaia Berridge to bury his second three of the game but New Zealand’s comeback had been stopped in its tracks.
Halaifonua was in the thick of the action again in the third – 7 points from the Kiwi centre and triples from Hunter T and Matakatea set up that tantalising fourth period.
Halaifonua would go on to complete a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds, Hunter Trego scored 13 points while Matakatea finished with 11 and Berridge 10.
New Zealand have acquitted themselves well over the past month winning a bronze medal at the Asian Championship and competing strongly at the World Cup. Head Coach Darron Larsen, his staff, and players can be proud of their accomplishments.
Book and Halaifonua finished amongst the top-20 scorers at the 16 team tournament -Book (12.6ppg) was 13th while Halaifonua (12.0ppg) was 19th. Both fared even better on the rebounding list with Book (8.6rpg) 7th and Halaifonua (7.1rpg) 11th.
New Zealand 70 – Halaifonua 18pts & 13rebs | H Trego 13pts | Matakatea 11pts | Berridge 10pts | P Trego 7pts | Turner 6pts | Shortt 5pts & 9rebs
Argentina 80 – J Respaud 17pts
*USA defeated hosts Spain 79-67 in the gold medal game.
Full rosters, statistics and live stats can be found at: www.fiba.basketball/world/u17/2022
New Zealand Schedule: (times given are local in New Zealand)
- Sat 2 July, vs Canada (L, 46-94)
- Sun 3 July vs Serbia – (L, 120-72)
- Tue 5 July vs France – (L 104-35)
- Weds 6 July vs Lithuania – (L 61-48)
- Fri July 8 vs Mali – (W 80-59)
- Sat July 9 vs Egypt – (L 82-54)
- Sun July 10 vs Argentina – (L 80-70) – Re-watch at nz.basketball/tv
U17 Men’s National Team Roster
Kaia Berridge – Tauranga City Basketball
Nic Book – Canterbury Basketball
George Grant – Basketball Otago
Julius Halaifonua – Harbour Basketball
Dante Matakatea – Basketball Auckland
William Passi – Counties-Manukau Basketball
Kalid Petzer – Basketball Auckland
Brody Perry – Franklin Basketball
Will Shortt – Basketball Auckland
Hunter Trego – New Zealand
Phoenix Trego – New Zealand
George Turner – Counties-Manukau Basketball
Head Coach – Darron Larsen
Assistant Coach – Chris Tupu
Assistant Coach – Jack Williamson
About The FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022
The FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 features the world’s top 16 men’s U17 national team with 56 games played across 9 days from July 2-10 in Malaga, Spain.
As event hosts, Spain gained automatic entry. The remaining 15 teams qualified through regional U16 championships with 2 from Africa, 5 from Europe, 4 from the Americas, and 4 from Asia – with New Zealand earning their place after securing a spot in the recent FIBA U16 Asian Championship.
