Tall Blacks cruise into World Cup
The Tall Blacks have qualified for the 2019 Fiba World Cup following a comprehensive win over Syria.
The 97-74 victory in Wellington yesterday confirmed New Zealand as one of Asia’s six automatic qualifiers for the showpiece event in China next August.
They have two remaining qualification matches away to Lebanon and Jordan in February but will likely take a young team to the Middle East with qualification now secure.
Yesterday’s result was put beyond doubt inside the first 12 minutes, with the Tall Blacks leading by 26 at the end of the first quarter.
It took Syria almost six minutes to score their first point. By then they had already committed four turnovers and the score was 12-1. By the end of the quarter it was 31-5.
Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare spread the minutes around his squad, with the likes of teenagers Kruz Perrott-Hunt and Tyrell Harrison gaining valuable court time with their more experienced team-mates.
Derone Raukawa was the only one of the 12 Tall Blacks not to trouble the scorers in the first half as the lead extended to 35 (61-26) at the main break. Tom Abercrombie led the scoring with 15 in the half on 5/6 shooting.
New Zealand did their best to keep their intensity up in the second half, continuing with their full court press and forcing Syria into 14 turnovers by the end of the match.
Abercrombie ended as their top-scorer, despite not scoring in the second half, while Mika Vukona, Ethan Rusbatch and Alex Pledger all got into double digits.
Syria kept battling away and ended up winning the second half
48-36 on the back of good play from Tarek Ajabi and Abdulwahab Alhamwi. The Tall Blacks scored only 11 points in the final quarter.
The win was New Zealand’s ninth in a row in qualifying. They have lost just once, in their opening match of phase one against South Korea in Wellington in November 2017.
The result and margin of victory was not unexpected. Syria lost their three previous matches in phase two of qualifying by an average of 42 points, including by
41 to the Tall Blacks in Lebanon in September. They lost by 49 to China in China on Thursday before flying to New Zealand for this match.
At a glance
(Tom Abercrombie 15 points, Alex Pledger 11, Ethan Rusbatch 11, Mika Vukona 10) (Tarek Ajabi
18 points, Abdulwahab Alhamwi
14).
Q1: 31-5; HT: 61-26; Q3: 86-50.
New Zealand 97
Syria 74