NZL/AUS - New Zealand claim second FIBA Oceania Championship

WELLINGTON (FIBA Oceania Championship) - A sublime performance from Kirk Penney and an incredible third quarter from the New Zealand Tall Blacks has delivered them their second ever FIBA Oceania Championship with a 100-78 victory over Australia in Wellington.

Penney finished with 24 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds in a remarkable display that guided his young team to its biggest ever winning margin over its powerhouse neighbour.

He received outstanding support from Mika Vukona, who at just 198cm dominated Australia's inexperienced frontcourt with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Alex Pledger was also a major factor in the paint, recording 15 points and 13 rebounds to continue his emergence.

Australia's shining light was the persistent play of 2006 FIBA World Championship player and Olympian Brad Newley, who finished with 20 points and 5 rebounds but could not carry his teammates to victory.

Olympian Joe Ingles again performed well with 13 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals, bringing struggling big man Andrew Ogilvy (14 points) into the game with his outstanding passing. Nathan Jawai was again outplayed by the Tall Blacks bigs, but toiled hard for 17 points and 9 rebounds.

The first half was a tightly fought affair, with the Tall Blacks leading 17-16 at quarter time, and the Boomers in front 40-38 at the long break thanks to consecutive steal and dunks to Ingles and Newley in the final minute.

New Zealand made their move behind Penney's brilliance in the third quarter, as first Vukona and then exciting young swingman Tom Abercrombie finished Penney assists.

Abercrombie then jammed a Penney alley-oop pass to bring the capacity crowd to boiling point and the margin to 9 points, before follow up baskets from Vukona and Abercrombie extended the margin to 13.

When reserve guard Mike Fitchett hit a deep buzzer beating three the score at the final change was 74-55.

Though the result of the game was beyond doubt, if Australia could bring the margin under 7 points it would retain the FIBA Oceania Championship on aggregate, but Vukona dominated the boards and was steady from the free throw line as New Zealand closed out their remarkable 22-point win.

Both countries have qualified for the FIBA World Championship in Turkey next year, with New Zealand taking Oceania's first seed into the tournament.


They said :

Brett Brown, Australia coach:

“You’ve got to give credit to New Zealand. They exposed some of the things we were doing and our young guys had trouble dealing with the environment we were in.

“We were outplayed physically and we couldn’t match their aggression.

“From an execution standpoint, defensively I think we did a good job on Penney but he did a good job of finding his team mates and his team mates made plays.

“We challenged Vukona to make shots and he did. He had a heck of a game.


Nenad Vucinic, New Zealand coach:

“I know it’s clichéd, but tonight was a team effort.

“After what happened in Australia we wanted to come back here and treat our locals to a good game and I think we did that tonight.

“We knew we didn’t have it until the final buzzer after we gave it up to Australia in the fourth quarter last game, but as soon as that whistle went we were celebrating.”


Paulo Kennedy
FIBA