{"id":702151,"date":"2026-05-29T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702151\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:29:11","slug":"nznbl-new-zealand-national-basketball-league-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702151\/","title":{"rendered":"NZNBL: New Zealand National Basketball League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Posted on Friday, May 29th, 2026<\/p>\n

Game Recap: Airs v Jets<\/p>\n

Result: Taranaki Airs (77) are defeated by Property Brokers Manawat\u016b Jets (89)<\/p>\n

The visiting Jets had looked good over their last few games with the return of Tai Webster joining his brother Corey brought scoring, experience and leadership. The first quarter would be a one sided affair as the Airs struggles continued to fester. The Jets would take a commanding 29-8 lead. With both Webster brothers outscoring the entire Airs side. While the match would look over after the first quarter, 14 straight points from the Airs and 5 minutes without a bucket for the Jets in the second would bring the home side back into this game. Heading into the second quarter, the Jets would start to pull away. Tai Webster showcased his brilliance alongside the MVP numbers from Jamal Poplar Jr to bring the lead up to 23. It would fluctuate but as the fourth quarter came to a close, it’d be the visiting Jets moving their way up the ladder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading Players:

\nTaranaki Airs: James Moors (20p, 11r, 2a), Aaron Cook Jr (13p, 11a, 4s), Marcel Jones (15p, 6r)

\nManawat\u016b Jets: Jamal Poplar Jr (23p, 14r), Tai Webster (16p, 4r, 6a, 77 FG%), Kazlo Evans Jr (18p, 3r, 4a, +37)<\/p>\n

Sal\u2019s NBL Box Score<\/a><\/p>\n

MVP Votes:

\nJamal Poplar Jr (Jets) – 9

\nTai Webster (Jets) – 7

\nJames Moors (Airs) – 5

\nAaron Cook Jr (Airs) – 5

\nKazlo Evans Jr (Jets) – 3

\nMarcel Jones (Airs) – 1<\/p>\n

Rapid League game:

\nResult: Taranaki Airs (34) defeat Cook Street Manawat\u016b Jets (28)<\/p>\n

After initially going down 0-7 on the season, the reentrance from Luka Vea and Quintin Bailey into the Rapid League lineup worked wonders for the squad. With it came scoring and veteran presence that would help steady the ship and allow Riley Tuuta to be the scorer Taranaki fans knows he can be. The Jets had a knack for destroying winning streaks and in the first quarter, they looked poised to do it again. That was until Riley Tuuta turned on the jets and would pour in 15 points. Experience and good buckets would carry the Airs through to their 3rd straight victory.<\/p>\n

Leading Players:

\nTaranaki Airs: Riley Tuuta (15p, 6r, 3a, 3s), Luka Vea (8p, 3r)

\nManawat\u016b Jets: Boston Caldwell (14p, 2r), Christian McDaniel (2p, 14r, 2a)<\/p>\n

Rapid League Box Score<\/a><\/p>\n

Rapid League MVP Votes:

\nRiley Tuuta (Airs) – 9

\nBoston Caldwell (Jets) – 8

\nQuintin Bailey (Airs) – 4

\nLuka Vea (Airs) – 4

\nIsaac Makoii (Jets) – 3

\nChristian McDaniel (Jets) – 1

\nZavier Pearn (Airs) – 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on Friday, May 29th, 2026 Game Recap: Airs v Jets Result: Taranaki Airs (77) are defeated by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-702151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}