Kiwis fourth at 3x3 World Cup

The New Zealand under-18 3x3 basketball team finished fourth out of 20 teams at the World Cup in Chengdu, China on Monday.

New Zealand were beaten 21-17 by Slovenia in the bronze medal match, having been beaten 10-8 by No 1 seed the Netherlands in the semifinals. They had earlier beaten Hungary 16-15 in the quarterfinals.

New Zealand coach Anthony Corban said by the time the bronze medal match was played, the Kiwis were struggling to maintain their composure in the over-30-degree heat and intense humidity.

But he wasn’t looking for excuses, his frustration was clear, believing the game should have been closed out by his team with a four-point lead and two minutes to go.

‘‘After letting this game slip, our team debrief was pretty heated,’’ he said. ‘‘A team shouldn’t lose a 3x3 game when up by four points with just over two minutes to go, but we did when we had the bronze medal firmly in our grasp.

‘‘Poor decision making led to turnovers and an avalanche of points on us. It was tough to handle, especially after Rangimarie Mita did a great job getting us back into the game with his two-point shooting.’’

The Slovenians were consistent under pressure and pulled ahead, managing to reach the required 21 points first to claim bronze.

The day had started with the Kiwis playing the quarterfinal against Hungary, who shot out to a 5-1 lead.

It took Will Heather to bring the Kiwis back to 5-5, after muscling every single point back with a small hook under the post. From there both teams traded blows to remain even for most of the game.

It wasn’t until a timely bucket from Thabo Manyere that the Kiwis took the lead for the first time. Hungary hit straight back to make it 14 all with 28 seconds to play. It then seemed fitting for Heather to chalk the final game-winning point.

Corban was delighted with the team’s performance where they managed to keep their focus.

‘‘We managed the game clock quite well to clinch a narrow one-point win. It was a total team performance. Everyone contributed and our on-court communication and leadership was very strong.’’

In the semifinal against top seeds the Netherlands, the Dutch shot out to a 5-1 lead, from which New Zealand could not recover.

The tournament’s shootout winner, Calvin Poulina, was clinical in moving forward and scoring from almost any position for the Netherlands.

The Kiwis’ energy seemed spent after their quarterfinal win and Corban said his team didn’t bring the same foot speed to the semifinal.

The Netherlands went on to to lose the final 17-12 to Belgium.