NZ teams holding their own in Finland

BOTH New Zealand teams are putting on competitive showings at the world junior B championships.

The women have each managed three wins from their opening five matches, while the men have won four from six at the event in Finland.

In the under21 age group, all five members of both teams are from Otago. They had their final group matches in the early hours of this morning.

The women — Jessica Smith, Holly Thompson, Courtney Smith, MhairiBronte Duncan and Lucy Neilsen — remained in the hunt for a quarterfinal spot heading into this morning’s match.

After big wins over Finland and Spain to open the tournament, they were beaten by two big threats in Germany and Scotland.

However, they bounced back to beat Austria 83 yesterday.

They were due to play Poland this morning.

Meanwhile, the men — Anton Hood, Ben Smith, Matthew Neilson, Hunter Walker and Jayden ApuwaiBishop — have come out on both sides of several close scorelines.

They came back late to beat Finland 65 in their opener, but were edged 76 by Slovenia the next morning.

A loss to China followed, before they bounced back late again to sneak past Turkey 43.

Wins over Kazakhstan and Australia followed yesterday.

They were due to play Japan this morning.