The New Zealand U15 national teams have both finished second behind Australia at the FIBA Oceania Cup in Canberra – a top two spot earning both teams a place at the FIBA Asian Championship in 2025.
Both the Men’s and Women’s teams were well beaten in their respective Final’s which was disappointing given there strong showings against Australia earlier in the tournament.
Our women’s teams are often overwhelmed by their Australian counterparts so to see this U15 team take the Aussies to the wire in pool play before going down 71-68 was hugely encouraging.
Flicking through the record books and scratching my head I can’t seem to find an occasion when our women have run the Australians closer at a FIBA age group tournament – correct me if I’m wrong but a kiwi victory is unheard of and a single figure defeat a rarity.
Disappointingly the Grand Final turned out to be a let-down for the Kiwis with the Australians dominating from start to finish to run out 93-44 winners.
The leading performers for New Zealand were Tauranga guard Shamar Broughton (12.4ppg), Harbour forward Imani Rasmussen (10.8ppg and 8.8rpg), Canterbury’s Ava Jones (10.8ppg and 6.6rpg) and Wellingtonian Nahala Toeleiu (9.2ppg).
The New Zealand Men had taken Aussies to overtime before going down 92-81 in pool play but were beaten 96-68 in the championship game.
Lawson Pryor (Auckland) averaged a team high 19.4ppg with Brigham Hakarai (Waitakere West) contributing 10.4 points and 7 rebounds per outing while Canterbury’s Tawhiri Cate averaged 9.4 points and 5.8 rebounds.
LACEY LOWDOWN 