The efforts of the previous day’s hard fought victory against China took it’s toll as the New Zealand U17 Men lost 73-51 to the Philippines in Argentina today.
The result means that the Kiwis finished fourteenth at the sixteen team Fiba U17 World Cup.
Having beaten the Philippines 76-60 at the Asian Championship back in April to claim bronze at that tournament New Zealand would have been hoping to achieve a similar result in Santa Fe.
However it wasn’t to be with the Philippines winning every quarter on their way to a comfortable victory. Mitch Dance was once again the leading scorer with 12 points, Shalom Broughton the only other Kiwi in double figures with ten points.
Thanks to Anzac Rissetto, Haven Dixon and Dance New Zealand comfortably won the rebounding count 60-43 but some of the other statistical categories were not so positive.
The Kiwis gave up 18 turnovers, ten more than their opponents. Neither team shot the ball well from beyond the arc but inside and mid-rand the Philippines were a reasonably efficient 44% (33/75). In comparison the Kiwis connected with just 20 from 79 at 25%.
The team finished the tournament a very respectable eighth in the rebounding statistical category but last in shooting percentages.
Dance was the team’s leading scorer averaging 15.6 points a game with Marvin Williams-Dunn (7.9) and Kainoa Lepou (7.2) the next best.
Anzac Rissetto was a top ten rebounder at the tournament collecting 8.9 boards a game. Dance demonstrated his value with 6.6 rebounds per outing and Haven Dixon corralled 5.9 per game.
Philippines 73
NZ 51 – M Dance 12/11r, S Broughton 10, T Cowie 6, M Williams-Dunn 6, H Dixon 5/9r, E Vaigafa 5, A Rissetto 4/12r, J Mckinlay 3
LACEY LOWDOWN 