The 2degrees Tall Ferns have overcome a slow start in their third game of the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament, to defeat South Sudan 82 – 74, thanks to 32 points from Emme Shearer.
The first quarter was damage by committee from the South Sudan Bright Starlets, as they ran out of the gates hot hitting four triples in the opening quarter to lead proceedings 23-13.
The second quarter saw the Tall Ferns start to chop into the South Sudanese lead. Ella Brow continuing her good form from beyond the arc, knocking down a pair of triples in the quarter, whilst the elder of the Whittaker sisters, Charlotte, added five points of her own.
The third quarter continued the trend, as the Tall Fern guard Emme Shearer started to heat up. Including her bucket two minutes into the quarter to tie things up, Shearer dropped nine points in the third stanza.
By the end of the quarter, South Sudan’s lead was cut to just two, and Shearer’s scoring outburst was just a pre-cursor of what was to come in the fourth.
Opening the quarter with another bucket, Shearer tied things up at 57-a-piece.
While South Sudan’s Adut Bulgak and Nyamer Diew continued to provide their squad was a slight buffer, Shearer would go on a scoring tear, single handledly keeping the Tall Ferns in the game with 13 straight points, on her way to a total of 17 points in the quarter.
Two late triples from captain Tayla Dalton securing the Tall Ferns victory, and a spot in tomorrow’s semi-finals.
Shearer’s 32 points tonight, a new career-high for the Portland Pilots guard, happy with the group’s togetherness throughout tonight’s game.
“We had a bit of a slow start, but we stuck together and played the whole forty minutes. I think we knew once we got into the flow of things that we’d be able to outrun them.”
Despite Shearer’s big scoring night, she attributed the Tall Ferns dub to a number of contributions across the board tonight, which included 16-year old Imani Rasmussen scoring her first 2degrees Tall Ferns points.
“All ten players did a really, really good job coming on the court and providing for us. I think the bigs did a huge job battling down low… and some huge plays at the end by Tayla, our captain, was huge.”
Coach Nat Hurst pleased with those contributions across the floor in what was a physically demanding game.
“It was a tough, physical game. Momentum both ways for the forty minutes. But we just kept saying if we stick to our process we felt like we could run over them in the end. And we just stuck with it, and this guy [Dalton] hits a couple of big threes and Emme Shearer has a great game, and we have others chip in. We just knew we could keep chipping away and we’ll come out with the result we wanted.”
Captain Dalton buoyant after securing their spot in the semi-finals.
“I think our whole pool play, there’s been four really even teams. Some tough match-ups, but I think the really exciting thing for us is that we’re trending upwards.”
They’ll need to continue trending upwards, as they’ll match up against either Canada or Mexico in tomorrow’s semi-finals.
Those two teams play this afternoon (2:45pm NZT) to determine first and second in Group B. The winner of that game, facing the Tall Ferns in tomorrow’s semi-final.
2degrees Tall Ferns 82 (Shearer 32p, 16-16 FTM, C.Whittaker 10p, 4r, 4a, Brow 9p, Dalton 8p) defeat South Sudan 72 (Bulgak 25p, Joiner 17p, Diew 13p)
Q1: NZL 13 – 23 SSD
HT: NZL 32 – 39 SSD
Q3: NZL 55 – 57 SSD
FT: NZL 82 – 74 SSD
