LAUSANNE (Switzerland) - New Zealand find themselves in uncharted waters at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 after they defeated China to book their ticket in the Quarter-Finals for the first time in history.
New Zealand nearly wasted a 20-point lead but grabbed a 99-86 win over China in a re-match of the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2024 Semi-Finals - won by New Zealand 86-71.
"To get a win and head to the top eight is amazing," said Hayden Jones, who scored 16 points to go with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. "We had an up-and-down game. China had some runs but we weathered the storm and came out on top."
New Zealand are making their fourth appearance in the global junior tournament, taking 13th place in 2009 at home and then finishing 11th in 2017 and 13th in 2019.
Four of the New Zealand players were part of the team that last summer reached the Semi-Finals of the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024. That matched the greatest result in the Oceanians' history along with fourth place at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2002.
Jones was part of that U17 team as well and they have meshed together well the players from the 2006 generation.
"We've got a special group with our U17 guys from last year and the older guys - we gel together really well. We were always going to go all out for each other," said Jones, who father Phill Jones was a member of the 2002 Tall Blacks in Indianapolis.
FIBA