Basketball New Zealand

Lindsay Tait (FIBA)

By Scott Preston, Stuff
The NZ Tall Blacks took a first step towards possibly progressing from their group at the FIBA World Championship for Men with a 108-76 win over Lebanon in Izmir, Turkey, this morning.

Based on a flying start, lock-down defence, a balanced offence and a hot-shooting third period, the Tall Blacks powered to the commanding 32-point win at Halkapinar Arena and put themselves into position to qualify from Group D with one more win.

The win also saw them get the better of former Tall Blacks head coach Tab Baldwin, now in charge of Lebanon.

Shooting guard Kirk Penney top-scored for the third straight game with 26 points, while swingman Tom Abercrombie continued his continued his rapid upswing with 23 points as New Zealand went past 100 points for just the third time in the past six years.

“We had a great start and that was the key for us,” said Penney, who is averaging 28 points per game.

“Their heads dropped a bit and we just got confidence. Coming off two losses we understand how important confidence is.

“The way we started was fantastic but what we did different was that we keep the foot down on the pedal and made sure that we kept working hard defensively and continued to trouble them.

“Obviously we’re very familiar with what Tab runs and had a great understanding of what the opps were going to do. And capitalised on that. Our coaches prepared us very well.”

The usually low-scoring Tall Blacks scored freely throughout the game, helped by a Lebanon team that never brought the intensity defensively, and finished with six scorers in double-digits in a balanced performance. Backing up the outputs of Penney and Abercrombie, Phill Jones dropped 13 points, Lindsay Tait 12, Mika Vukona 11 and Craig Bradshaw 10, while Casey Frank also had eight.

Fadi El Khatid top-scored for the Cedars with 18 points but he was held in check by Penney and Abercrombie. Lebanon shot a healthy 49% on field-goal attempts and 40% on threes.

It was a complete performance from New Zealand against a weaker opponent. They shot 57% (40-of-70) from the field, hit 11 triples, grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and forced Lebanon into 21 turnovers. Almost a total opposite from the Lithuania game, everything the Tall Blacks need to do to win games, they did. Or were allowed to.

Lebanon certainly played their part in the Tall Blacks success, not handling the different defensive looks from the Tall Blacks, being careless with the ball in the lane and being guilty of lowering their effort after New Zealand’s strong first period.

“It was one of those tough days at the office,” Baldwin said.

“It was a game that had a lot of pressure around it. The New Zealand team were very much ready to play. They were like a machine from the start. They didn’t miss a beat. They played really well as a team.

“They beat us easily on the offensive end but the vital part was the way they started defensively. They never let up and kept their foot on our throat. The way they started defensively took us out of any idea that we’d be able to run any kind of systems tonight.”
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The first quarter was easily the best period the Tall Blacks had produced at this tournament. Near-perfection.

The Tall Blacks shots dropped, they frustrated the Cedars with their pressure defence, the offence ran smoothly, finding open players on cuts to the basket, and they created and exploited mis-matches on the perimeter. And they did it all with Penney scoring only two points.

Abercrombie hit the court scorching hot, hitting the game’s first basket and scoring 10 points in the first four minutes, including a pair of corner threes, as the Tall Blacks forged to a 13-5 lead. The lead grew further as the swarming defence saw Lebanon turn the ball over five times in the first period. The Kiwis also out-hustled Lebanon at the other end, corralling seven offensive rebounds in the quarter, giving them a 12-2 advantage in second chance points.

Abercrombie led all scorers with 14 points at halftime, while Penney was called upon for only seven points as the Kiwis converted 20-of-37 (54 percent) from the floor. El Khatib was held to nine points on six attempts in the first half. Of New Zealand’s 51 first-half points, 28 came in the paint where Abercrombie, Vukona, Bradshaw and Frank were going to work on the boards and around the rim.

The Tall Blacks mixed their defensive looks well, making Lebanon guess by coming at them with full-court man-on and zone pressure but also dropping back and switching to zone defences in the halfcourt at time. Unlike against Lithuania and Spain, the move was successful in disrupting Lebanon’s offence, which never got into a rhythm and relied mostly on individual moves, especially from El Khatib, for their points.

While Abercrombie, Bradshaw and Vukona got their points in the first half, the third period was Penney time.

After a quiet first half, Penney almost single-handedly put the dagger in Lebanon. Curling off screens, Penney dropped four threes, scored 14 points for the quarter and showed why many international media feel he should be playing in the NBA. New Zealand’s lead went past 20 points at the 5:37 mark in the third and they were able to prevent any Lebanon runs. They continued to limit Lebanon’s leading scorer El Khatid and increased the gap to 25 points.

Whether it was confidence from a 20-plus point lead or the heat, a small pocket of the Kiwi fans – members of the “Rabid Wekas” – removed their white singlets during a timeout with a minute remaining in the third period, revealing yet more white.

When Penney hit his sixth three and Tait followed with a steal in the back-court and lay-in to put the Tall Blacks up 92-59 with 5:36 remaining, it shut the door on a comprehensive win and saw coach Nenad Vucinic go to his bench.

The only downside was the ease Lebanon centre Jackson Vroman was able to get to the basket, defended by Bradshaw, but Vroman got himself in foul trouble and was not much of a factor in the game after the first period.

The win marked the third time the Tall Blacks have scored three figures since 2005. The other two times were in the 100-78 Oceania Championship-clinching win over Australia last August and a 100-70 win over Venezuela during the South America tour in 2006.

NZ Tall Blacks 108 (Kirk Penney 26, Tom Abercrombie 23, Phill Jones 13, Lindsay Tait 12, Mika Vukona 12, Craig Bradshaw 10) Lebanon 76 (Fadi El Khatib 18, Jean Abd El Nour 12, Jackson Vroman 10)
Q1 32-16
HT 51-32 (19-16)
Q3 81-56 (30-24)
FT 108-76 (27-20)
NZ v Lebanon box score (html 121kb)