After a tightly contested period, Australia edged ahead, taking a 23-21 lead into the first break.<\/p>\n
The Boomers carried their momentum into the second term, forcing an early timeout from the Tall Blacks after a strong Australian start on both ends of the floor. Australia\u2019s defence set the tone, applying constant pressure and disrupting New Zealand\u2019s rhythm throughout the quarter.<\/p>\n
Despite the stifling defensive effort, the Tall Blacks refused to fade. Their hustle on the offensive glass generated crucial second-chance points, trimming the margin and reigniting their momentum. The surge was punctuated by an explosive putback dunk from Sam Mennenga, one of the highlights of the half.<\/p>\n
After another tightly fought spell, Australia maintained the edge, taking a two-point lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
The Tall Blacks opened the third quarter with intent, snatching the lead early as the momentum swung in New Zealand\u2019s favour. The Boomers responded with a determined fightback, trading blows in a fast-paced and physical stretch.<\/p>\n
But it was Mennenga who truly took command of the period. The forward took over the quarter, capping his impact with a monster dunk that sent the Tall Blacks\u2019 crowd into a frenzy and firmly tipped the momentum their way.<\/p>\n
Riding that surge, New Zealand pushed ahead to claim a five-point lead at the final break.<\/p>\n
The final quarter exploded into action as Taine Murray and Mennenga kicked things off with a bang, helping the Tall Blacks ride the momentum generated from their dominant third term.<\/p>\n
But the Boomers refused to back down. Australia roared back into contention with a sharp 7-0 run, tightening the contest and setting up a nail-biting finish.<\/p>\n
From there, both teams traded blows, with the lead swinging repeatedly as the intensity rose on every possession.<\/p>\n
With the Tall Blacks up one, with under 20 seconds on the clock, the ball found Davo Hickey, who knocked down a bank with double zero showing on the timer to steal the win in Wellington.<\/p>\n
Heartbreak for the Tall Blacks wh\u0101nau, as Australia take the two opening games of World Cup Qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery proud of the efforts of our guys. We had our chances, we know that it actually took a shot at the buzzer to beat us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Judd Flavell was proud of the efforts of his team in the tough loss, a sentiment shared by the team\u2019s captain for this window, Finn Delany.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win, but yeah, just couldn\u2019t get over the line,\u201d Delany said<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like what Judd spoke about, extremely proud of the group. I think we got a lot of growth in and very short amount of time and pushing the programme forward and it\u2019s bigger picture stuff. But on that side I\u2019m extremely proud of Judd and the management and the boys that chose to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s focus will soon shift to the February window where the team will travel to the Philippines and Guam for their next round of qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we start to build, and it hurts now, but these experiences will help us grow. Our goal is to try to keep as many guys connected as possible as we look forward to the Philippines who we know very well and are going to be a tough outfit and also Guam. No disrespect to Guam, we have to show up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Flavell had one last comment on his players and the future of the national programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much growth and development left as a team, so it\u2019s exciting for the Tall Blacks in the future and what that looks like. And as a coach, we\u2019re building towards the long game, which for us is getting to the World Cup, and once we\u2019re there, setting our sights on LA.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand Tall Blacks 77 (Mennenga 16p, 6r, King 13p, 5a, 5r, Cameron 9p) defeated by Australian Boomers 79 (Pinder 21p, Kay 20p, Galloway 13p, Hickey 12p).<\/p>\n
Q1: 24-27HT: 48-42Q3: 67-66FT: 84-79<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a tightly contested period, Australia edged ahead, taking a 23-21 lead into the first break. The Boomers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,1135,8136,29874,107083,3595,69252,124,107081,1359,26217,107084,14154,107082,78,101,111,139,16546,69,2847,107085,8466,10117,213,30638,165,52,6923,14451,102,377],"class_list":["post-163234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-australian","tag-blacks","tag-boomers","tag-buzzerbeater","tag-by","tag-clock","tag-could","tag-davo","tag-described","tag-edged","tag-fiba","tag-give","tag-hickey","tag-in","tag-left","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nothing","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-qualifiers","tag-second","tag-shot","tag-sports","tag-tall","tag-their","tag-wellington","tag-what","tag-window","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}