Tall Blacks bounce back to claim bronze

GOLD COAST: The Tall Blacks overcome the disappointment of their lastgasp loss to Canada to get up — earlier than normal — and beat Scotland for Commonwealth Games bronze yesterday.

Led by Thomas Abercrombie’s standout gamehigh 26 points, New Zealand ran out a 7969 winner at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

The early start time of 9am may have caught the Kiwis drowsy and flat as Scotland took a 2119 lead after the first quarter.

However, late in the second quarter the New Zealanders started hitting more threepointers — Abercrombie sank six from nine — and finding space under the basket and they led 4135 at halftime.

Scotland had a miserable morning with its threepointers (five from 25) but was still in touch after the break, backed by a lone voice chanting ‘‘deepfried Mars bars, deep fried Mars bars’’.

The Tall Blacks slowly pulled away during the postbreak spell to take a 15point lead into the final quarter.

The gap was too big for Scotland to pull back and New Zealand claimed the bronze medal by the 10point margin.

‘‘It was always going to be a tough one to get up for this early in the morning,’’ Abercrombie said, admitting he probably had not played at a similar hour since primary school.

‘‘It takes a while to get the legs going . . . we never quite found our rhythm.

‘‘At times our defensive pressure was really good. We forced them into some tough shots. At times we gave up some really easy ones.’’

Australia beat Canada 8747 in the goldmedal match. — AAP