The Tall Blacks turned on a blistering final quarter to defeat Mexico 78-67 and stay unbeaten at the Stankovic Cup in China and on course for a place in Friday’s final.
The win was secured on the back of a fantastic close out from the tight knit group enjoying their 5th game on tour after they had stumbled their way through the opening three quarters of the match, with the vast majority of the 25 turnovers occurring before the final ten minute spell.
Coach Paul Henare was both disappointed and pleased with the performance.
“We were disappointing in the first three quarters of that match, too many turnovers, too anxious in possession and not executing our plays. When we stuck to the play book and trusted our systems, we were fine, but too often we went off on a tangent and allowed Mexico too much latitude – and they are a very good team that doesn’t need our help.
“But I was pleased with the way they responded in the final quarter. We put a young group out to being the final ten minutes and then our starters were able to get the job done in the final few minutes against some good pressure.
“We have to be better though, the win is great, but we have to play better and look after the ball. 25 turnovers is clearly just too many, we will go away and look at the edits and do some more work to get it right.”
Captain Mika Vukona returned to the side after sitting out the opening day win over Venezuela, he echoed his coach in the after match interviews.
“25 turnovers showed we stuttered along, but the guys that ended the game did a great job and showed that while we have suffered some close losses on this tour, we are able to learn from that and close one out, but too many turnovers put us in that situation, we have to fix that.”
Vukona also paid tribute to his club and national team mate Tom Abercrombie after he lit up the stadium with a spectacular dunk in the closing minutes to seal the deal, extending the Tall Blacks lead to 5 with 1:10 to play.
“Any time anybody can make a play like that the energy will flow through the team. It was an amazing play and at the end of the day the only player who can do that is Tom Abercrombie, it was awesome to see that.”
Abercrombie led all scorers in his best game on tour, finishing with 25 points on 7 of 11 with 2 from 3 from deep. He received good support from Corey Webster who was again judicious in his shot making, picking up 15 points on a 6 of 12 display. Isaac Fotu had another respectable night with 8 points and 7 boards while 17 year old Tai Wynyard showed glimpses of his potential with some good touches in the paint in just under ten minutes of play, crucial minutes with Fotu, Vukona and Loe all in foul trouble early in the second half.
Tall Blacks 78; Abercrombie 25, Webster 15, Fotu 8
Mexico 67; Mendez 14, Manjarres 14
Link to highlights (including the Tom Abercrombie dunk): http://sports.sina.com.cn/cba/2015-08-04/doc-ifxfpcyu5081205.shtml
Link to BOX SCORE: http://cba.sports.sina.com.cn/stankovic/schedule/show/13774/
