The Tall Ferns played their fifth and final game of the 37th William Jones Cup against an American Select team on Friday and came away with a heartening 79-54 victory.
The Tall Ferns retained the starting five that began the game against Chinese Taipei the previous day – Purcell, Taylor, Cocks, Wallbutton, and Davidson. Injury sidelined Samara Gallaher for the second consecutive game.
The Tall Ferns made a very bright start to the game against the American team racing to a 24-16 advantage at quarter time. The trio of Micaela Cocks, Kalani Purcell and Penina Davidson each scored seven points in the period. Davidson and Lisa Wallbutton were causing the Americans some trouble inside, each gaining multiple trips to the foul line as the opposition was forced to foul.
The second quarter showing was equally strong, the American’s kept to just 8 pints in the period. Young centre Davidson who has been one of those to impress the coaching staff this week led all scorers at the break with 10 points.
The Tall Ferns powered away in the third period opening an unassailable 65-36 advantage before easing to a comfortable first win of the tournament.
Wallbutton (12pts/13rebs) put together an impressive double double having managed to get to the foul line on 14 occasions. Kalani Purcell was in eye catching form again reeling off 16 points/12 rebounds/2 assists and 3 steals.
Once again the team were paced by point guard Micaela Cocks (11pts) with the teenage trio of Davidson (10pts/8rebs), Tessa Boagni (9pts) and Stella Beck (7pts) all making telling contributions.
Tall Ferns coach Kennedy Kereama was naturally delighted, not only with the win, but also the progress the team has made during the week.
“We have improved every game as a team and you can see the belief starting to grow within the group and individual players. We believe if we can play our ‘Tall Ferns’ style of play and execute it consistently for a whole game we can beat anybody.”
“Today against the U.S we kept them to 54pts and that is what we are going to have to do if we want to beat Australia, our defence will be a very important piece of our puzzle. All the schemes and change ups we have are slowly becoming second nature. However we still need playing time together so our next series against Japan will be important in order to become consistent in our structures.”
“Overall the tour has been a good experience for the team each game has had its own challenges. We have had a great opportunity to build on our style of play and we are all looking forward to bringing the team to Christchurch to play against a very good Japanese National team.”
The Tall Ferns do not get a lot of time to dwell on their success. They depart from Taiwan on Saturday landing in Christchurch, via Singapore and Auckland, on Sunday to prepare for a three test series against Japan next week. The tests are being played in Christchurch on Wednesday and Friday followed by the third test in Ashburton on Sunday week.
