LACEY LOWDOWN

Jillian Harmon

Jillian Harmon produced the top performance last week by a New Zealand international overseas.

Harmon scored 16 points for Le Mura Lucca (for the second successive game) as they beat Ragusa 62-46 in the Italian League. The Tall Ferns forward secured 5 rebounds for good measure.

Micaela Cocks scored 11 points and added 4 rebounds for Townsville Fire as they went down to Sydney University Flames 69-68. It was a poor weekend for the Fire losing both road games and slipping to 2-2 in the Australian WNBL.

It was a better weekend for Toni Edmondson as she produced a very useful stat line of 8 points (4/6FG), 7 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal as Perth Lynx improved to 3-2 for the season

Bubbling under last week:

Dion Prewster 9 points (3/7 3PG) in just 12 minutes as Sydney Kings defeat Illawarra Hawks.

Mike Karena had 6 points and 7 rebounds as Sammic ISB were thumped 71-41 by Albacete the Spanish Second Division competition. Sammic were previously unbeaten entering game four of the season but suffered a rude awakening in this one.

Isaac Fotu 7 points and 3 rebounds as Zaragoza return to winning ways defeating UCAM Murcia in Spanish Liga Endesa.

Jess Bygate 6 points and 3 rebounds as Melbourne Boomers beat Bendigo Spirit 71-67 and move to the top of the WNBL ladder

In other News:

 Jarrod Kenny played just 3:44 as Perth Wildcats defeated United in Melbourne. The former Westlake standout left the court with a groin strain and could be out of action for 3-4 weeks. To compound Perth’s problems the Wildcats have also lost fellow point guard Damian Martin for a couple of weeks with a jaw fracture.

Krystal Leger-Walker

Pride of place this week goes to the New Zealand Women’s team at the 2016 FIBA 3×3 World Championships in China as we reflect on a busy week for Kiwis overseas.

The New Zealand team comprised of Georgia Agnew (Waikato), Breana Jones (Auckland/Counties) and the Tall Ferns pair of Deena Franklin (North Harbour) and Krystal Leger-Walker (Waikato).

The team boasted a 3-1 record in pool play and normally would expect to advance to play-off action but the Kiwis were denied by points differential as Netherlands (15.5 pts per game average) and Ukraine (14.5) marginally bettered NZ (14.0) as all three teams finished with a 3-1 record in Pool A. Unfortunately New Zealand missed out on quarter-final action.

Overall this was a fine effort by the New Zealand team to perform strongly at a World Championship event. The team was seeded 16^th of the 20 participating nations and defeated three higher ranked teams before being squeezed out by a three points differential.

Franklin (26 points) and Agnew (24 points) both featured in the top 20 scorers in the tournament. There was a degree of compensation for Agnew, who has just returned to NZ after four years at Utah Valley University, as she took the bronze medal in the Skills Contest at the tournament.

The second best performance belonged to Isaac Fotu, the power forward scoring a highly efficient 16 points (8/11FG) to go with 8 rebounds. His effort couldn’t prevent Zaragoza slipping to a third Spanish League defeat in four outings as they lost 87-84 to Sevilla.

Coming in at number three was Jillian Harmon. The Tall Ferns forward scored 16 points for Le Mura Lucca who were beaten 69-68 by Napoli in the Italian League.

Mike Karena, on the back of a perfect shooting night, claimed fourth spot. The 2016 Tall Blacks rookie notched 10 points (5/5FG), 6 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block as Sammic ISB made it three from three in the Spanish Second Division competition. Sammic beat Navarro 63-56.

Fifth was Jess Bygate who had a nice double of 8 points and 8 rebounds in a starting role for Melbourne Boomers on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Boomers and Bygate they were outscored 25-17 in the fourth to go down 88-85 to Perth Lynx in a tight WNBL encounter.

Rounding out the top six was Jarrod Kenny. He scored 9 points including the go ahead triple in the fourth quarter for Perth Wildcats as they held off the Breakers in the Perth Arena on Friday night.

Also worthy of mention are the Cook Islands women’s team and the New Zealand Men’s team that also competed at the 3×3 World Champs. Both teams exited after pool play with a 0-4 record but the collective 8 losses were all against higher ranked teams.

Any players attending a FIBA World Championship event should be congratulated on a rare achievement regardless of the results.

The North Harbour pair of Rory Fannon and Karl Noyer plus Nick Fee and Hamish Sheridan represented New Zealand Men from Waikato. Noyer led the NZ scoring with 20 points.

The quartet of Johaana Bates, Adoniah Lewis, Janet Main and Terai Sadler, familiar names in NZ women’s basketball circles, made up the Cook Islands team.

Bubbling under last week:

 Micaela Cocks and Chevannah Paalvast each scored 6 points as Townsville Fire thumped Adelaide Lightning 85-56. Jordan Hunter made it a half dozen trifecta for the Kiwis by landing 6 points for Adelaide as they struggled to compete with the WNBL defending champs.

Toni Edmondson had 4 rebounds and a team high 6 assists for Perth Lynx but it wasn’t a shooting performance to remember for the Cantabrian. The Lynx went down 94-74 at Dandenong with Edmondson a cold 1 from 10 from the field managing just 3 points.

Dion Prewster made his first appearance of the season for the Sydney Kings scoring a couple of points as the Kings defeated Illawarra Hawks 88-84 to hand Andrew Gaze his first W as head coach of Sydney.

The major news out of Australia last week concerning New Zealand international players was that Chevannah Paalvast has extended her stay with the Townsville Fire for a further year.

Having secured a championship during her maiden season in the WNBL the 24-year-old Tall Fern will return to the Fire looking to establish herself as one of the competition’s premier lock-down defenders.

During limited minutes for the Fire last season, Paalvast showed glimpses of her international form.

“I’m extremely happy to have signed with the Fire once again,” Paalvast said.

“It’s great to be back playing with some amazing teammates and coaches and to be able to stay in this community.

“It’s a great place to play basketball,” added the former Waitakere player.

During the WNBL ‘off season’ Paalvast has remained in Townsville playing in the Queensland Basketball League where she is averaging 15.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists for Townsville Flames.

She didn’t quite match those numbers on Saturday although the Flames did take care of business beating Sunshine Coast Rip 74-68.

Paalvast added 4 assists to 6 points as the Flames head into their final regular season game holding equal second spot on the ladder with two other teams.

Over in Perth both Lisa Wallbutton and Toni Edmondson will be involved in State League quarter-final action next week.

Edmondson came extremely close to a rare triple double recording 16 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists as Perry Lakes Hawks downed Kalamunda Eastern Suns 94-72.

Wallbutton was also in fine form nabbing 14 points and 12 rebounds but Perth Redbacks went down 77-65 to Willetton Tigers.

The quarter-finals will be best of three affairs with Perry Lakes facing Mandurah Magic and the Redbacks up against Rockingham Flames.

In Melbourne the Sunbury Jets have earned themselves a week’s holiday!

The Kennedy Kereama coached Jets finished the Big V First Division regular season with an unblemished 20-0 record after two one sided victories at the weekend.

On Saturday it was top versus bottom and the outcome was predictable as the Jets crushed Craigieburn 101-47. It was a little closer on Sunday but the Jets still rumbled over Keilor Thunder 90-56.

Tall Ferns forward Jess Bygate had 10 points and 5 rebounds against Craigieburn and 5pts/7rebs against the Thunder.

The Jets now get to put their feet up and watch the teams placed 3-6 in the league play-off for semi-final spots at the weekend.

Duane Bailey appears to be finding fitness and form at the right time of the season in Brisbane. The former Tall Black scored 13 points and snared 8 rebounds as the Brisbane Spartans staged a come from behind 93-81 victory against Albury Wodonga Bandits after trailing 45-33 at half-time.

With two rounds to play in the SEABL regular season the Spartans boast a 14-7 record and have secured second place on the Eastern Division table ahead of the play-offs later in August.