Tall Ferns suffer loss to Italy at World Cup qualies
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
The New Zealand Tall Ferns have improved on the scoreboard, but still lost to Italy in their World Cup qualifying game in Puerto Rico falling 74-51.
Italy started hot from the field opening the game on a big 10-2 run, prompting Coach Nat Hurst to take an early timeout to talk things over.
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Following the timeout, the Tall Ferns tighten their defensive scheme and Emma Shearer got on the scoreboard.
The first quarter also saw new Tall Fern, Jade Kirisome, score her first international bucket, courtesy of a nice spin layup in the lane.
Italy’s Cecilia Zandalasini continuing to work on the Italian lead with nine points in the first quarter, to give them a 26-12 lead after the first ten minutes of action.
The physicality in the second quarter really ramped up, with white and blue singlets flying everywhere.
The Tall Ferns continued to put the screws on their Italian counterparts, keeping them scoreless for 3:20 minutes, while they clawed their way back into the game courtesy of a 6-0 run.
Tegan Graham’s back-to-back triples continued to cut the lead to, as the Kiwi’s got within single digits.
Whilst the Italians threatened to extend the lead again, the Ferns capped off a great second quarter, outscoring their opponents by six the in quarter to be down 30-38 at the half.
It was Graham who would get the Tall Ferns restarted in the third quarter, knocking down her third triple of the evening. Ella Tofaeono’s and-one then brought the team to within a basket of snatching the lead from under the noses of the Italians.
Just then, the Italians ignited a 9-0 run, again extending their lead back out to double figures, with their bigs starting to go to work down low.
Vandalasini hit Italy’s second four-point play of the quarter, as the Italians would extend the lead to the biggest margin of the game, 56-39.
Again, the Tall Ferns begun the quarter by keeping the Italians scoreless for the first three minutes of the fourth, but we’re unable to cut into the lead themselves as the game stalemated for a short while.
Sharne Robati broke the deadlock, but yet again, the Italians countered with a 12-0 run to put the lead out of the reach of New Zealand
Briarley Rogers knocked down her first bucket in the final minute of the contest, making sure that now all three of the debuting squad members with their first Tall Ferns points.
The end score favouring the Italians, and not a true reflection of how close this contest was at points during the game.
Despite the result, 2degrees Tall Ferns head coach Nat Hurst had more positives to take out of this one.
“Look, a lot of improvement from yesterday. Still too many turnovers for us, too may points scored against us in that category. Obviously, Italy are another quality European team that we just got to have a great matchup against.”
“We just want to keep building and that was another building block for us so we walk away relatively happy.”
Hurst happy with that way the team played and the improvement that this young 2degrees Tall Ferns showed.
“At the end of the day, wasn’t the result that mattered to us, it was how we went about it and to improve on some things we wanted to improve on since yesterday. Rough start to the game, but we pulled it together a lot quicker than we did yesterday so we’re relatively happy with that.”
Despite the slow start, the Tall Ferns were able to show grit and determination to at one stage during the third quarter get within two points of the Italian lead.
“To push it until midway through the fourth quarter, again, stuff that we can be happy with. Obviously, we want to keep building, we want to be better but it’s a process for us.”
The team now turns it’s attention to Sunday’s game against Senegal, where both teams will look for their first win of the World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
“We love that we have a little bit of time between this one (the game) and the next one. The girls are in great shape, they’re recovering pretty well so now it’s just about giving them the right information heading into the next game and we’ll start to do that tomorrow.”
Tall Ferns 51 (Graham 9p, Shearer 8p, 8 Tofaeono ) Italy 74 (Zandalasini 18p, Cubaj 14p)
Q1: NZL 12-26 ITA
HT: NZL 30-38 ITA
Q3: NZL 44-59 ITA
FT: NZL 51 - 74 ITA
