Tall Ferns grab the bronze
New Zealand’s Tall Ferns enjoyed the fact they weren’t playing Australia, and walked away with a Commonwealth Games bronze medal to show for their final outing at this tournament.
After being pummelled 109-50 a night earlier by the awesome Australians in their semifinal, the New Zealanders found Canada a much more agreeable opponent in the playoff for the bronze medal at the Gold Coast to run out comfortable 74-58 victors.
It was a bit of a something old, something new theme to the Ferns’ performance too, with 16-year-old schoolgirl phenomenon Charlisse Leger-Walker and everegreen 35-year-old shooting guard Natalie Taylor leading the way for the Kiwis with 18 points apiece.
Leger-Walker, who is still at St Peter’s School in Cambridge, got hot late to sink four three-pointers in the final term to put the issue beyond doubt after the Canadians had clawed the deficit back to 10 points.
She was seven of 12 from the floor and four of seven from deep and added two boards, two assist and a pair of steals in another impressive performance.
Taylor rounded off an excellent Games in style, making six of her 13 attempts from beyond the arc and adding five boards and a pair of assists. Micaela Cocks also stuffed the stat sheet for the Ferns, making seven of 14 shots for 16 points and adding six rebounds and seven assists.
Toni Farnworth chipped in with nine points and five boards for the New Zealanders, while Kalani Purcell led the rebounding count with seven.
Neither side shot well through the first half, but it was the Ferns who converted slightly more efficiently to lead 16-12 after the first quarter and 34-26 at halftime. The New Zealand advantage stretched to 18 (57-39) by the end
of the third quarter, and from there the bronze was only ever going one way.
Meanwhile, the Tall Blacks will play off for bronze after a last-gasp
semifinal loss to Canada.
New Zealand lost 88-86 after Mamadou Gueye landed a three point winner on the buzzer yesterday on the Gold Coast.
The young Canadian side were cruising, up by 21 points (74-53) in the third quarter. New Zealand fought back in the final quarter and led 86-85 with five seconds left.