Tall Blacks pick themselves off the floor to secure bronze

The Tall Blacks bounced back from an embarrassing semifinal loss to Canada to salvage basketball bronze at the Commonwealth Games.

New Zealand toppled a plucky Scotland 79-69 yesterday to secure third place on the Gold Coast.

Australia won gold, easily beating Canada 87-47 in the final.

It was some consolation for the New Zealand 79 (Tom Abercrombie 26, Mika Vukona 8, Shea Ili 8, Finn Delany 8) beat Scotland 69 (Jonathan Bunyan 13, Alasdair Fraser 12, Michael Vigor 10). Tall Blacks, who were lethargic in a 88-86 semifinal loss to Canada on Saturday. New Zealand lost on a buzzer beating three, having fought back from 21 points down late in the third quarter to almost snatch a comeback win.

Swingman Tom Abercrombie carried the scoring load, pouring in a game-high 26 points against Scotland.

A three from Scotland’s Fraser Malcolm with 1.51 remaining trimmed New Zealand’s lead to 73-65 to set up a tense finish.

New Zealand outscored Scotland 38-34 in the second half, shooting 16/32 (50 per cent) from the field.

The Tall Blacks bashed the Scots on the boards, outrebounding them 44-33 with Rob Loe hauling down 10 boards.

Mentored by seasoned Australian National Basketball League coach Rob Beveridge, the Scots put up a valiant showing against the heavily favoured Tall Blacks, matching it with them all game.

Trailing 21-19 after the first term, the Tall Blacks went on a 17-6 run to begin the second quarter as Scotland went cold on the offensive end.

After committing an alarming 26 turnovers in their semifinal loss, the Tall Blacks struggled again protecting the basketball.

They turned the ball over 12 times in the second half and 18 for the game.

His legs folded, he buckled to the ground, and his attempts to get up using railings failed, as spectators on the path were powerless to help him, lest he be disqualified.

With still no rival in sight, Hawkins crumbled to the road, writhing. He pushed away initial attempts by medics to help him.

Australian Michael Shelley overtook Hawkins while he was receiving attention on the side of the road.

Hawkins, who was fourth in the 2017 world championships, had led Shelley by 2min 3sec lead at the 40km checkpoint.

Shelley overtook him to claim another gold medal for Australia, crossing the line in 2hr 16min 46sec.

Hawkins had looked set for gold, until he began weaving across the road.

After going down once, he continued for about another 200 metres before another fall, this time seeming to hit his head on a railing.

It took several minutes for medical staff to attend to Hawkins, even though it was clear he could not continue.

BBC Sport commentator middle-distance running great Steve Cram said it was ‘‘a disgrace’’ that it took so long.

‘‘I’m sorry if you’re watching this at home, it’s really distressing. He’s going to hurt himself and there’s nobody anywhere near,’’ he said.

‘‘Where on earth is the help? You cannot just wait at the finish line. They’ve got radios. And finally somebody arrives. I think it’s disgraceful.’’

There were also heat problems at the women’s marathon, with exhausted bronze medallist Jess Trengrove of Australia put in a wheelchair at the finish.

Gold went to Helalia Johannes from Namibia in 2hr 32min 40secs.