Basketball New Zealand

Kirk Penney v France (FIBA)

Scott Preston, Stuff
The NZ Tall Blacks will take a three-game winning streak into the knockout phase of the FIBA World Championship after an impressive 82-70 win over France in Izmir this morning.

With the win already secured by the final minute, the Tall Blacks pressed for a margin of victory that would get them up to third in Group D and avoid an eighth-final match-up against hosts Turkey. They succeeded. Just.

Tom Abercrombie, who had a mixed night offensively, hit a corner three with 6.9 seconds remaining, then France’s Nicolas Batum rimmed out a three at the buzzer to preserve the 12-point margin at Halkapinar Arena.

Instead, the Tall Blacks will play Group C’s second-place qualifier Russia (Tuesday 6am NZ Time) in the round of 16 knockout games after finishing the preliminary round in a three-way tie with Spain and France for second in the group, with 3-2 records. Defending world champions Spain took second, New Zealand third and France fourth after a goal average tie-breaker separated the nations.

Had Abercrombie missed or Batum been successful with his long-range attempt, the goal average tie-breaker would have been reversed, with France claiming third and New Zealand fourth.

The game closed with a pair of giant three-pointers from Kirk Penney, on a rare four-point play, and Abercrombie as the Tall Blacks were in the unusual position of fouling France to preserve time on the clock – usually a tactic used by the trailing team – to try to build a bigger winning margin.

Leading 75-68, Penney cut to the top of the key, caught, turned and shot in the same motion, made the three and was fouled by Batum. After making the free-throw, the Tall Blacks fouled Yannick Bokolo, who made a pair of freebies, leading to Abercrombie’s wide-open three ball in front of a celebrating Tall Blacks bench.

“Everyone in the locker room is pretty ecstatic with this win over France,” said Tall Blacks forward Mika Vukona during the post-game press conference, moments after being man-hugged by a screaming assistant coach Dillon Boucher while talking to media in the mixed zone.

“We just wanted to make our road ahead a little bit easier and we managed to do that. We just wanted to win it first and if we got a chance to get that 12-point lead we’d try to look for it and thank God Tom’s shot went in.

“We talked about it just once before the game and that’s all that was said. Twelve points was the magic number and anything more than that would be great.”

The win was a significant one for the Tall Blacks, who were on the brink of elimination after back-to-back losses to Lithuania and Spain to start the tournament, but demonstrated the trademark resilience of Tall Blacks teams by closing out the group with three straight wins over Lebanon, Canada and France.

Penney, the tournament’s second-leading scorer behind Argentina’s Luis Scola, top-scored for New Zealand with 25 points on 6/15 shooting. He was helped by 15 points from Vukona, who also added six rebounds and five assists to his stat-line.

Yannick Bokolo led France with 13 points off the bench.

A bitterly disappointed France coach Vincent Collet and point guard Nando de Colo focused on their own shortcomings in the game rather than crediting the Tall Blacks with stopping them from taking full advantage of their height and athletic advantages.

“We got what we deserved,” Collet said.

Already secure in going through to the knockout phase of the tournament, the Tall Blacks produced a high quality display of swarming defence on France in the first half, holding them to 25 points while taking a double-digit lead.

Penney lead the Tall Blacks with 10 points, including a pair of threes, at halftime, while seven other players had got on the scoresheet. Vukona was the next best with eight points.

A strong start, especially from outside the arc, saw the Tall Blacks lead for much of the first quarter, only for a late three-pointer from de Colo putting the French up by three at 20-17 in the final seconds.

Penney, guarded by Portland Trail Blazers forward Batum, hit a pair of three-pointers to start the game, sending the growing New Zealand cheering section into a chant of ‘M-V-P, M-V-P’. The first three came from the corner, getting Batum in the air on a shot fake, and the second with Charlotte Bobcats forward Boris Diaw in his grill.

Lead by point guard Lindsay Tait‘s ball denial on de Colo, the Tall Blacks hassled the French into seven turnovers and just 27% (6/22) shooting from the floor in the first half. France finished the game with 14 turnovers.

New Zealand shot their best three-point percentage in Izmir in the first and second quarters, hitting on 8/17, and ended the game with 14 made threes at a 44% clip.

In the second period, the Tall Blacks started to find an offensive rhythm only seen previously in the win over Lebanon and at times in the Lithuania game. On consecutive possessions, Phill Jones hit a step-back jumper, followed by three-pointers from Vukona and Frank to put New Zealand up 27-22. Soon after, Vukona made a tough drive to the basket, was fouled by Diaw, and completed a three-point play. That stretched the lead to 10 points, 35-25, with 2:22 left until halftime.

France went with their tallest line-up to exploit their size advantage on the Tall Blacks – with Ian Mahinmi, Batum, Florient Pietrus, Diaw and de Colo – while coach Nenad Vucinic handed captain Pero Cameron his first start of the tournament, at centre, joining Tait, Penney, Abercrombie and Vukona in the starting five.

With the French showing respect for the haka, Cameron marched the Tall Blacks forward to the centre-court line in their most stirring haka of the tournament.

FIBA World Championship for Men

Izmir, Turkey

Thursday, September 2
New Zealand 82 (Kirk Penney 25, Mika Vukona 15) France 70 (Yannick Bokolo 13, Mickale Gelabale 12, Nando De Colo 10)
Q1 17-20
HT 39-25 (22-5)
Q3 58-43 (19-18)
FT 82-70 (24-27)

NZ v France box score (html 120kb)