Basketball New Zealand

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Harbour Heat forward Daryl Cartwright (Photosport)

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Harbour Heat guard Hayden Allen (Photosport)

NBL success has thrust Appliance Shed Harbour Heat duo Hayden Allen and Daryl Cartwright back into national team consideration.

New NZ Tall Black coach Nenad Vucinic has selected 19 players for his first selection camp, beginning July 1 in Napier. The group will be trimmed to 14 (July 7) for a three-test series against Venezuela (July 20-24), then 12 for the remainder of the 2007 campaign.

The Tall Blacks main assignment this year is to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and they will face the Australian Boomers in a three-game qualifying series across the ditch in August.

Vucinicís initial squad includes all those who contest last yearís FIBA World Championships in Japan, except retired guard Aaron Olson.

Allen has never played for the Tall Blacks and Cartwright last pulled a black singlet against the Czech Republic in 2003, but they have been key contributors in the Heatís winning Dominion Finance NBL regular season campaign.
Allen emerged as Harbourís leading scorer, averaging 17.1 points (48.4% FG, 79.2% FT, 33.3% 3pt) and adding 2.7 steals.

Cartwright came off the bench for 10.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, shooting a career high 80% FT. With Aussie import Oscar Forman on Boomers duty, he underlined his form with 23 points/16 rebounds in the Heatís final outing against U Park It Waikato Pistons.

ìTo be honest, I was not considering guys like Hayden and Daryl in March,î admits Vucinic. ìBut because of their form and especially how well they have made their team perform through the NBL, I have taken that into account.

ìThe league is an ideal environment to judge players trying to break into this level and itís fair to say some players didnít make these trials because they havenít performed well in the NBL.î

Newcomer Everard Bartlett also forces his way into contention after a season in which he was promoted into the Easy LPG Bay Hawks starting five.

Previously known as a NZ Breakers development player and ANBL slam dunk champion, he added three-point range to his repertoire, averaging 13.9 points a game in his expanded role.

Vucinic has included five point guards – Mark Dickel, Mike Fitchett, Paul Henare, Jeremy Kench and Lindsay Tait – in his squad. Last year, the Tall Blacks were caught short and Henare logged up huge minutes as the teamís only specialist point after Tait broke his wrist and Dickel was suspended for drug use.

American Nick Horvath, who has played as an import for Century City Wellington Saints over the past two seasons, is in the squad and will contest the teamís one naturalised spot with incumbent Casey Frank if his NZ citizenship application is approved in time.

The full squad is Ö