mystro
Years ago

World Champs: NZ Vs France

NZ finished pool play strongly with a solid win over France 82-70 pushing them into 3rd spot in group D.
Kirk Penney once again top scored for the Kiwi's with 25 points and Mika Vukona chimed in with a solid 6 rebounds and 15 points including 2 from 2 beyond the arc.
The Tall Blacks lead for most of the match but France were always within striking distance until the last couple of minutes of the fourth quarter.
Bokolo top scored for France with 13 points.
Highlight play for me was when Tom Abercrombie got up and blocked Borris Diaw in the paint.
Lets hope the Tall Blacks can carry the momentum of 3 wins in a row into the next round and send someone home.

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paul
Years ago

Amazing performance to beat France tonight, 82-70, the exact margin they needed to avoid Turkey in the crossover - they now face Russia and France have the unenviable task of the host nation.

After leading by 8-12 pretty much all game they were only seven up with twenty seconds to play when Penney nailed a three and was fouled, making the four point play.

The TB's then fouled Bokolo (from memory) and he hit both. After a time out they found Abercrombie who banked a three! The last shot by Batum rimmed out and NZ had a famous win.

France went at Penney and Vukona with Batum and Diaw but the NBLers dominated, Penney with 25 and Vukona 15p, 6r and 5a. In comparison the French duo had 15 points between them at 27%!

Pero Cameron was the mastermind of it all and Lindsay Tait was superb handling the immense pressure from Bokolo, who has given point guards nightmares.

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LC
Years ago

Great win by NZ! glad to see them do well and finish in 3rd spot in a tough group.

Both Australia and New Zealand as Oceania representatives have a chance to now finish in the top 8 should they win against Slovenia and Russia respectively.

The NBL must be doing something right as the majority of players on each team have come from there!

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Bill
Years ago

Thats the best game Pero has played for the Tall Blacks in years. The winning margin was important to avoid Turkey but it has to be said a little lucky, Penney 4 point play, and a BANKER from the corner by Abercrombie to seal it.
Nice defensive team France (did a good job on Penney) but couldn't really get anything going offensively on a regular basis.
Vukona again very solid and between him, Casey Frank, Pero and Phil Jones they managed to hit big shots when needed.
Our guards looked shaky throughout but just managed to get by without too much damage.

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mystro
Years ago

Lindsay Tait has been playing awesome. He absorbed all of the French pressure bringing the ball up and was very patient on offense and managed to hit a couple of 3's to give NZ a valuable contribution.
I agree on Bills comments regarding PC, huge game for the big guy, superb passing and hit shots at crucial times (little hook in the paint in the last few minutes)as did Mika Vukona.

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Anonymous
Years ago

pero is a basketball genius - to think joyce had him sitting on the bench most of the time... what happened to him i wonder

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Anonymous
Years ago

just for any of the kiwi fans out there - notable that so much of the core of the NZ team is maori - how much has this translated itno more interst in the game among maori kids? doesn't surprise me that they would each be good passers too given the communal nature of maori culture - bit like indingenous australians.. (surprising there aren't more maoris in the AFL though i just found out today that one of my favourites in greg broughton is of maori descent)

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paul
Years ago

Apparently the Maori and islander kids love CJ Bruton, and the Breakers are a lot more visible than the Tall Blacks.

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Curtley
Years ago

"doesn't surprise me that they would each be good passers too given the communal nature of maori culture - bit like indingenous australians" - passing ability is not something people are genetically predisposed to based on culture.

15% of NZ has maori or islader descent whereas only 2% of Australia identifies as ATSI, so the fact that two Indigenous aussies are in the best 12 for the boomers is even more remarkable.

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Hoops

World Champs: NZ Vs France

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