Rising Suns Shine
Tagged in: Tall Ferns
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Massive centre Kumiko Yamada and dead-eye outside shooter Ai Mitani brought the Japanese womenís team through for a hard-fought 80-75 win over a Northern All-Stars team to wind up their four-game tour of New Zealand.
The composite team consisted of players from the three leading WBL northern conference sides – Harbour, Auckland and Waikato – and were coached by NZ Tall Fern coach Mike McHugh. Six, including two new caps, will tomorrow be named in the national team to tour Japan later this month.
The Kiwis, who had just 30 minutes together before taking the court, go off to the better start, leading 22-20 after the first quarter and rattling off 14 straight points to open the second period. Their opponents were struggling to stop centre Jess McCormack inside or point guard Noni Wharemate off the dribble.
But as Mitani found her range, momentum began to turn just before halftime. The encounter struck a pivotal point when McCormack picked up her fourth foul midway through the third term and had to sit.
Mitani slotted four of her five treys to spark Japanís comeback and struck from the arc to finally put her team back on level footing in the final moments of quarter. Ahead 58-57 entering the final stretch, they then took advantage of the Kiwisí defensive vulnerability in the post by pounding the ball into 2m-tall Yamada, who scored 12 of her game-leading 22 points in the fourth term before fouling out.
Tall Fern forward Lisa Wallbutton struggled to stay with Mitani on the perimeter defensively, but became the All-Starsí prime offensive weapon in McCormackís absence. She matched Yamadaís scoring and grabbed 11 rebounds for the gameís only ìdouble doubleî
Japan, building towards Olympic qualifying at the Asian Games next month, finished their New Zealand camp unbeaten, having already accounted for Waikato (91-36), Harbour (105-50) and Auckland (94-47) over the three previous nights. They now proceed to Australia.
McHugh, in turn, was pleased that his hastily assembled outfit came so close to beating the tourists, while also exposing several young players to international basketball.
Japanese Womenís Tour
Saturday, May 5
North Shore
Japan 80 (Kumiko Yamada 22, Ai Mitani 19, Ryoko Utsumi 14, Yuko Oga 11) Northern All-Stars 75 (Lisa Wallbutton 22, Noni Wharemate 20, Jess McCormack 15, Micaela Cocks 13)
Quarter 20-22
Halftime 30-38 (10-16)
Threequarter 58-57 (28-19)
Fulltime 80-75 (22-18)
Box Score – Northern All- (html 22KB)
