They won but they lost
Olympic dream over for Tall Ferns
Victory over Korea for the New Zealand women’s basketball team in Auckland last night was bittersweet.
Needing to win by at least 12 points to advance to the next round of Olympic qualifying in February, the Tall Ferns were left to rue what may have been in their 69-65 victory.
Leading the entire way, and several times by more than the magic dozen, the home side looked a real possibility of keeping their hopes alive for Tokyo 2020, only for a classy Korean fightback to spoil the New Zealand party.
Leeseul Kang sunk 5 of 5 threepointers for Korea, behind only Penina Davidson overall, with the Kiwi finishing with 24 on 11/19 shooting.
Kalani Purcell also notched a double-double
(16 points, 10 rebounds) for the hosts, but they couldn’t stem the Korean flow late on.
With China having secured their passage with a 127-49 thrashing of the Philippines earlier in the day, it left the Tall Ferns with a tricky task.
They not only had to tip up Korea (world No 18) but win by no less than a dozen in order to advance on a better points differential in the games between the three potentially tied teams.
The Tall Ferns came out of the blocks firing, and Korea soon had their own injury troubles, with Han Byul Kim writhing on the floor after a collision with Purcell and forced to the sideline.
Antonia Edmondson laid a fine foundation for the hosts, opening the team’s scoring with a three plus foul shot, then a lay-up soon after, as New Zealand raced to a 14-5 lead.
A huge three from Natalie Taylor capped the impressive opening quarter, with the Tall Ferns ahead 21-8.
After more than six minutes stuck on eight points, Korea finally hit double figures three minutes into the second stanza. The fightback was on, as a quality
three from Kang was followed straight after by an unsportsmanlike foul on Purcell, with Kang dropping the free throws to bring the deficit back to single figures.
Taylor sunk a three in the final minute, but Jung Eun Kim responded with one of her own to see Korea take the quarter 20-16 and go to halftime at 37-28.
If there was any indication of what Korea were going to bring in the third quarter, it came straight away via a three-point jumper from Kang.
Her side kept on raining threes – five in total in the quarter, as they eventually took the third period 22-18 to go to threequarter-time 55-50 behind.
New Zealand started the final 10 minutes in style, scoring the first six points, with Purcell and
Chevannah Paalvast sinking threes to hang the margin around that special dozen mark.
But a big three from Jung Eun Kim was clutch, making it 65-58 with 3:22 left.
As soon as a nice lay-up from Stella Beck made the margin nine, a huge three from Korea’s Hyejin Park which cut it to 69-63 and saw another timeout with 1:46 to play. Beck then carried to the basket but had a ball slip from her grasp, and, with it, the Ferns’ Olympic hopes.