New Zealand has suffered an agonising one-point loss at the SuperCup in Germany overnight, with the Tall Blacks going down 68-69 against China in their final friendly of the tournament.
The Tall Blacks pushed out to an early 20-12 lead in the first thanks to back-to-back layups from Flynn Cameron, taking a 39-31 lead into halftime on the back of solid shooting from the field (53%). China’s Li Kaier asserted this dominance in the third, scoring 8 straight points to reduce the deficit to 5, before triples from Cameron and Finn Delany pushed the lead back out to 11.
With a 54-50 lead heading into the fourth, the Tall Blacks struggled to execute in the final six minutes; going just 2-10 from the floor with a pair of buckets by Reuben Te Rangi their only points, as the Kiwis were outscored 10-4 during this stretch. Turnovers were again the Achilles heel for New Zealand with 21 miscues on the night – none more costly than China’s steal with 8 seconds remaining while holding a one point lead, giving China their first win of the tournament.
New Zealand was paced by the duo of Finn Delany (12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists) and Flynn Cameron (12 points, 4 rebounds). Isaac Fotu and Jordan Ngatai tallied 9 points and 4 rebounds apiece, Izayah Le’afa with 7 and Yanni Wetzell with 6. The Tall Blacks were also buoyed by the welcome return of Shea Ili, who scored 5 points and 6 assists in 10 minutes of action. Overall the Kiwis shot 47% from the field (26/55), hitting 8/21 from beyond the arc at a 38% clip.
For China, their star was NBA player Li Kaier (a.k.a. Kyle Anderson) who registered 18 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals on the night. Zhou Qi added 15 points, Hu Jin Qiu 10 and Fu Hao 8. China outrebounded the Kiwis 34-30, including 13 offensive boards, and got to the free throw line a whopping 27 times – compared to just 10 for New Zealand.
Tall Blacks head coach, Pero Cameron lamented his team’s late-game execution down the stretch.
“Lot of discipline [issues] for us, a bit more experience in games needed; we’ve just got to have a bit more of a killer attitude and finishing off these games and we didn’t – we struggled in the last 10-12 possessions,” says Cameron.
“Learning is learning, and also winning gives you a little bit of confidence to move onto the next stage. And we’ve got our biggest tournament [the FIBA World Cup] coming up in a week or so and we need to be ready. It would’ve been good to get this win, so we’re going to look at some things before we go into our next phase – we’ve got to be better.”
The Tall Blacks now head to China for the final phase of their World Cup preparation, taking on a Shenzhen China team in a friendly on 18 August before participating in the FIBA Solidarity Cup from 20-21 August, where they face Italy.
Stats:
New Zealand 68 – Delany 12 PTS & 5 REB & 5 AST | Cameron 12 PTS & 4 REB | I. Fotu 9 PTS & 4 REB | Ngatai 9 PTS & 4 REB | Le’Afa 7 PTS | Wetzell 6 PTS & 4 REB | Ili 5 PTS & 6 AST | Britt 4 PTS | Te Rangi 4 PTS
China 69 – Kaier 18 PTS & 5 REB & 4 STL | Qi 15 PTS | Qiu 10 PTS | Hao 8
Quarter scores: 22-16, 39-31, 54-50, 68-69.
Box Score: bbnz.link/SuperCupVsChina
