Basketball New Zealand

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It took some buzzer-beating heroics from star shooter Kirk Penney to earn the NZ Tall Blacks a hard-fought 69-68 victory over Iran at the Adidas Cup tournament in Istanbul.

The result between the reigning Oceania and Asian champions marks New Zealand’s first win on the road to the FIBA World Championships for Men in Turkey, starting later this month.

But it also shows how far the Kiwis must improve if they hope to qualify out of their pool at Izmir. They squandered several opportunities to seize control of this encounter and had to claw their way back from six points adrift in the final quarter.

Penney had been the villain when, with 25 seconds remaining and his team still a point down, he committed his fifth turnover of the game. Somehow, Tom Abercrombie regained possession, Mika Vukona missed with his attempted winner, but the ball was regathered and Penney made no mistake as the clock ran out.

As they had against Turkey the previous night, the Kiwis really set themselves behind the eight ball with eight turnovers in the opening quarter that gifted their opponents nine straight points.

They were also in early foul trouble with the frontcourt, in particular, struggling to stay with their counterparts, led by NBA centre Hamed Ehadadi and Rice University forward Arsalan Kazemi.

Trailing 11-18 into the second quarter, New Zealand drew level midway through the period and grabbed a 38-35 halftime advantage when Penney hit from the arc as the clock wound down.

They had found a couple of sparks in Abercrombie and BJ Anthony, got Penney rolling (17 points, 3/6 3pt) and, overall, were shooting the ball marginally better than Iran.

But they could not break the Asian champions. Lindsay Tait hit a three-pointer soon after the break for a five-point edge, but the Iranians produced another 9-0 run that swung the contest back their way.

Entering the fourth stanza, they were 55-53 up and Ehadadi already had his double-double for the night.

Kazemi stretched the lead to six with 7m 48s left, treys from Craig Bradshaw and Phill Jones had the Kiwis’ noses back in front, but Iran hit from distance for a three-point margin heading into the closing seconds.

Hopefully, this will be morale-booster for the Tall Blacks after tough losses to Serbia and Turkey. Penney again led all scorers with 28 points (10/18 FG, 4/9 3pt, 4/6 FT).

But this time, he found support in Bradshaw (12 points, 2/5 3pt, six rebounds) and especially Abercrombie, whose all-round performance (10 points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks) may have been the deciding factor.

Ehadadi finished with 21 points/14 rebounds and Kazemi 20 points (6/8 FG, 8/9 FT).

Adidas Cup

Istanbul Turkey
Sunday, August 8
New Zealand 69 (Kirk Penney 28, Craig Bradshaw 12, Tom Abercrombie 10) Iran 68 (Hamed Ehadadi 21, Arsalan Kazemi 20, Samad Bahrani 11)
Q1 11-18
HT 38-35 (27-17)
Q3 53-55 (15-20)
FT 69-68 (16-13)