JAKARTA (Indonesia) - New Zealand came from behind to beat Jordan 83-75 to claim their spot on the FIBA Asia Cup podium for the first time ever.

Jordan started the game strong, leading by 10 points in the first half off of the impressive sharpshooting of Amin Abu Hawwas.

However New Zealand rallied back and finally got ahead for the first time since the first quarter on a barrage of three-pointer by Tohi Smith-Milner. With the momentum now on their side, New Zealand took the lead for good.

Smith-Miler led the team with a personal Asia Cup-high of 25 points while knocking down 4 three-pointers despite having some foul trouble. Takiula Fahrensohn also came up huge in the last quarter and finished the game with 19 points.

Hasem Abbas and Amin Abu Hawwas led Jordan in scoring with 19 points each, though the Falcons also got a classic game from Zaid Abbas who had 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists.

The win awards New Zealand with their first ever podium finish in the Asia Cup, serving as some revenge from 2017 where they fell short to Korea in the Third-Place game of that edition of the competition.

Turning Point:

Tohi Smith-Milner had been feeling the toll of playing through the physical games at the Asia Cup, so it was a massive moment in the middle of the fourth quarter when he drilled three three-pointers on three consecutive possessions. The triple triples knocked the wind out of Jordan who were already running low on energy in the final quarter of the game.

via GIPHY

Game Heroes:

When Smith-Milner was receiving the TCL Player of the Game award, his teammates raised their hands to mimic his three-point celebration pose in unison. The team veteran showed up in the clutch for the Tall Blacks and is the heroe that led them to this massive win.

Stats don’t lie:

New Zealand shot 47.1 percent from the three-point line in the second half. Jordan obviously started the game on fire, but it also didn’t help for the Tall Blacks that they went 4-19 in the first half from long range.

Once the Tall Blacks started cooking from outside (which wasn’t until the fourth quarter), there was nothing else Jordan could do.

They said:

"I’m proud of the guys… for some parts of the game we were the better team, but we did not stop [Tohi Smith-Milner], we lost sight of him, he had a lot of big shots.” - Wesam Alsous, Jordan Head Coach

"This means everything for us. The capability of us winning the bronze, just setting us up for the future essentially, and also inspiring the young kids back home in New Zealand to pick up a basketball even. We're just setting the bar for the future to come." - Flynn Cameron, New Zealand

FIBA