Tall Blacks hang on to defeat Philippines
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
The Tall Blacks have recorded their first win of Asia FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in a tight game against Gilas Pilipinas.
In front of a raucous Filipino home crowd inside Manila’s Mall of Asia Arena, the Tall Blacks begun the second window of qualifiers with a 69-66 win over the budding-rival Philippines on Thursday (Friday NZ Time).
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In a low-scoring defensive contest, Southland Sharks forward Max Darling top-scored for New Zealand with 11 points (4/6 FG, 2/4 3pt), followed by Sam Mennenga with 10 points (3/10 FG, 4/7 FT), 14 rebounds and four assists, and Alex McNaught 10 points (3/5 FG, 3/4 3pt) and four assists.
Centre Tyrell Harrison had nine points and seven boards, Reuben Te Rangi seven points, three rebounds and three assists, Carlin Davison five points, three boards, three assists and three steals, and Jordan Ngatai six rebounds.
Point guard Dwight Ramos led Gilas with 16 points (6/21 FG, 3/5 FT) and eight rebounds, while CJ Perez put up 15 points (6/14 FG, 2/6 3pt) and Juan Gomez De Liano 10 points (4/11 FG, 2/7 3pt).
Coach Judd Flavell’s message to the team post game was pretty simple: “We came here to get the win, and we got the job done."
A huge focal point for the Tall Blacks was stopping Gilas superstar Justin Brownlee. Despite averaging 24 points against the Tall Blacks in their last three matchups, he was held to just four points in Manila.
“He’s given us the business before and in recent games, so he was a large focal point for us. I thought that went a long way for us defensively tonight.
“It helps that we’ve played each other a lot and it obviously helps them with us too and our system. But we know he takes a lot of attention. He’s a true international scorer, so the intention was that we’ve just got to be within touching distance of him at all times.”
Tall Black No 307 Keanu Rasmussen got on the floor, missing his one shot attempt, but was happy to have his first international win under his belt.
“We came in here to get a job done, and that’s what we did. There’s some areas we needed to clean up," Rasmussen said.
"The offensive boards early on, and then looking after the ball are probably some areas we need to improve on. But you know, we came in, got the win and I guess that’s all that matters.”
The victory against the Philippines marks the third in a row, and the Tall Blacks first victory of the qualifiers after two close losses to Australia in the first window last year.
Despite this, Flavell was happy with the team’s mindset heading into this window.
“We knew it was gonna be a tough series against Australia in December. Both those games went down to the wire. We got beaten on a last-second bank shot three. There were plenty of positives, so the morale was very good.”
As we’ve become accustomed to, Flavell’s men centre themselves around the team’s connection and culture.
“The group is very connected. We’re not a big country, but that makes us stronger. Because we’re a small country we need to be together and play a connected style of basketball. And that’s the same off the court.”
Buoyed by his home crowd, Perez got the home side off to a quick start, scoring the Philippines' first 10 points before heading to the bench with two personal fouls.
Following a couple of easy Filipino buckets at the rim, Flavell burned his first timeout. And it proved to be a masterstroke. A 5-0 Tall Blacks run directly after the timeout saw them claw their way back into the first quarter, off the back of Mennenga’s five points and four rebounds.
Three corner triples courtesy of Darling and McNaught in the closing stages of the quarter saw the Tall Blacks go up 25-21 at the quarter-break.
The Kiwis extended their lead courtesy of a 7-1 run to start the second quarter. A Britt three pushed the lead out to 10 for the first time in the game, before Gilas head coach Tim Cone called time to talk things over.
Stifling New Zealand defense in the second, constraining the Philippines to just six points through the first seven minutes of the quarter, will the Tall Blacks continued to pour in points and maintain a healthy lead.
As in their nature though, the Philippines grinded their way back into the quarter – eliminating the Tall Blacks lead to tie proceedings at the half, 37-a-piece.
The home side carried a little bit of that momentum into the opening possessions of the second half, Ramos and Brownlee converting a couple of easy buckets to put Gilas up four.
It did not take long for the Tall Blacks to strike back, a Ngatai corner trey levelling the scores at 41.
Tyrell Harrison gave the Tall Blacks the lead back, thanks to a thundering poster slam over AJ Edu, as momentum begun to swing back the way of the New Zealanders.
Te Rangi and McNaught knocked down the Tall Blacks seventh and eighth triples of the evening, as the Tall Blacks pushed their lead out to ten with a tick over a minute left to play in the penultimate quarter.
As they did in the third quarter, the Philippines got off to a hot start, with four points in the opening 38 seconds of the fourth.
Mennenga’s effort on both ends of the floor evident throughout this game, as his putback bucket in the fourth secured him another double-double.
Despite the unrelenting noise and volume from the crowd, the Tall Blacks maintain their composure amidst a potential Gilas comeback.
Te Rangi hit another triple to extend the Tall Black lead again, before Gilas went on another run to tighten the game to a two possession game with a minute and half left to play.
Ramos hit a triple for the Philippines to cut the lead to two, before hustle and effort down the other end saw Yanni Wetzell convert after multiple New Zealand efforts on the glass.
Another clutch bucket from Ramos, saw the Kiwi’s lead again cut down to two.
However, it was a little too late – after a Te Rangi free throw miss, the Philippines had an opportunity to send the game to overtime with Ramos missing a bank triple on the buzzer.
The Tall Blacks now head to Guam for the final game of the second window on Sunday (tip-off 8pm NZT).
Tall Blacks 69 (Max Darling 11, Sam Mennenga 10, Alex McNaught 10) Philippines 66 (Dwight Ramos 16, CJ Perez 15, Juan Gomez De Liano 10). 1Q: 25-21, HT: 37-37, 3Q: 57-46
