Despite a 20 points haul from Akiene Reed the New Zealand Junior Tall Ferns (JTFs) were beaten 76-58 by China Under 19 in Christchurch on Thursday. It was the second defeat in two days for the Kiwis.

China scored the opening basket of the game, but Charlisse Leger-Walker replied on the opening New Zealand offence, Akiene Reed scoring on the second.

Southland’s Aliyah Dunn and Waikato’s Kendell Heremaia converted in the paint but the Junior Tall Ferns trailed 24-12 at quarter time.

New Zealand’s defence improved early in the second period but struggled to score in the half court forcing coach Brent Matehaere to call a timeout with his charges 26-15 down.

Reed, Leger-Walker and Esra McGoldrick scored from the foul line but remarkably the JTF’s went eight minutes without a field goal before Reed pierced the China defence. Reed then landed a triple but China boasted a healthy 38-26 half-time lead.

Reed led the JTF’s scoring with 9 points but finding ways to improve the 7 from 26 (27%) shooting from the field was the major concern for Coach Matehaere to address in the locker room during the interval.

Reed continued her good first half form with the opening score of the second half, then Zara Jillings cut the deficit to single figures.

Spurred on by a sizeable Chinese contingent in the crowd the visitors seized on a couple of JTF’s turnovers to increase their advantage to 48-33 at the mid point in the third.

McGoldrick scored inside and Tiarna Clarke a floater, but baskets continued to be hard to come by for the JTF’s as the China lead extended to 60-41 at three-quarter time.

Clarke scored again with a baseline jump shot to open fourth quarter proceedings and Reed (20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals), the standout for the Kiwis on the night, converted an ‘And 1’ play.

Cantabrian Charlotte Whittaker then scored in the paint much to the delight of the home support, and the lead was cut to 64-51 with 7 minutes to play.

Jiaqi Wang halted the home team run with a three and although the JTF’s found scores from Clarke, Jillings and Whittaker, they were unable to threaten the Chinese lead and fell to a second loss on consecutive nights.

JTF’s head coach Brent Matehaere was proud of his team’s showing against the number one ranked team in Asia, but realizes there is still plenty of work to do.

“Our forwards were tremendous but our transition game let us down tonight. We need to learn to play at speed, however we are still in a building stage and we will take plenty from these two games as we move forward”, he said.

“The play went Akiene Reed’s way tonight and she was outstanding but we need contributions from seven or eight players each game,” he added.

The JTFs always knew the China side were going to be a tough team to beat. While the New Zealand players are still at school with an average age of just 17 years, and come together as a team to train four or five weeks of the year, it is far from the Chinese intensive programme. In contrast the Chinese team is together for eight months of the year playing in a professional league in their home country with just one player still at college – the remainder are full time basketball players.

Coach Matehaere says the experience from the two-game series will be invaluable for the young Kiwis as they look to the FIBA Oceania Championships, in Fiji, this December. The Championships will double as the Qualifying Tournament for the 2017 FIBA Under 19 World Championships to be held in Italy.

Final Score:
NZ Junior Tall Ferns 64 – Reed 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, Leger-Walker 7, Whittaker 7/7, Clarke 6, Jillings 6
China 72 – Han Xu 16, Li Yuan 13, Jaiqi Wang 10, Cao Yijia 10

Junior Tall Ferns Squad:
• Tiarna Clarke (North Harbour)
• Aliyah Dunn (Southland)
• Kendell Heremaia (Waikato)
• Alyssa Hirawani (Waikato)
• Joellen How (Taranaki)
• Zara Jillings (North Harbour)
• Charlisse Leger-Walker (Waikato)
• Esra McGoldrick (Canterbury)
• Bayley Ransfield (Taranaki)
• Tera Reed (North Harbour)
• Stirling Walker-Pitman (Waikato)
• Charlotte Whittaker (North Canterbury)

The opening game of the two tests series between the New Zealand Junior Tall Ferns (JTFs) and China Under 19, played in front of a large vociferous young crowd at Cowles Stadium Christchurch on Wednesday, was eventually won 72-64 by China.

New Zealand made a good start as Charlisse Leger-Walker, Tiarna Clarke and Charlotte Whittaker made early baskets to forge a 7-2 lead.

Stung into action, China tied the scores at 15 points apiece, then dominated the back end of the quarter by capitalising on New Zealand turnovers to lead 27-22. Leger-Walker led the JTF’s scoring effort with 8 points.

Zara Jillings made the opening basket of the second period followed by Akiene Reed as New Zealand kept the China offence in check. Alyssa Hirawani’s drive took the Kiwi’s to within a point, 30-29 before 205cm Xu Han was reintroduced to keep the JTF’s front court busy.

Leger-Walker landed a three and Reed a jump shot before Leger-Walker gave New Zealand the lead 39-37 from the foul line. That prompted a China timeout followed by the tying basket from Ru Zhang.

Both teams struggled to find the basket early in the third but an 8-0 China run prompted JTF’s coach Brent Matehaere to call a timeout.

Aliyah Dunn connected with a couple of free throws after the restart but a Jiaqi Wang triple extended the China advantage to 57-44. A 22-9 period in favour of the visitors gave China a significant 61-48 lead at three-quarter time.

The New Zealand offence continued to splutter, another 6-0 run from China extending their lead to twenty points, 68-48.

Local favourite Esra McGoldrick finally got the JTF’s score moving with a strong left hand finish and a Jillings ‘And 1’ play continued a mini run; 68-53 with under five minutes to play.

Clarke, Jillings and the impressive Leger-Walker (21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals) continued the resurgence forcing China to call a timeout with three minutes to play as their lead was trimmed to 70-59.

Three points from Clarke and a drive from Reed, 70-64, with 1:36 to play and the Canterbury crowd were in full voice behind the home team.

The 7-0 New Zealand run was broken by a Wang free throw. New Zealand were unable to capitalise on a couple of scoring opportunities, China edging a tight one 72-64.

JTF’s Head Coach Brent Matehaere admitted before the game that it was going to be a mighty challenge taking on one of the Asian powerhouse teams. He said the challenge for him and his team will be to replicate the first half effort for a full twenty minutes when the two teams return to Cowles Stadium for the second game on Thursday at 7.30pm.

“I thought we coped well with their tall timber but it was their perimeter shooting in the third period that hurt us the most.

“We will go back and look at the tape and see what we can improve on for tomorrow. Going with a smaller lineup in the fourth and playing running basketball certainly drew the crowd into the game. Perhaps it is something we can do more of in Game Two,” he said.

Final Score:
NZ Junior Tall Ferns 64 – Leger-Walker 21/5steals, Reed 12/7rebounds, Jillings 9, Clarke 8, Whittaker 5/7, McGoldrick 4/9, Hirwani 3, Dunn2
China 72 –Ru Zhang 13, Jiaqi Wang 12, Saiqi Jia 11

The games against China are a key component of the team’s preparation for the FIBA Oceania Championships, in Fiji, this December. The Championships will double as the Qualifying Tournament for the 2017 FIBA Under 19 World Championships.

Junior Tall Ferns Squad:
• Tiarna Clarke (North Harbour)
• Aliyah Dunn (Southland)
• Kendell Heremaia (Waikato)
• Alyssa Hirawani (Waikato)
• Joellen How (Taranaki)
• Zara Jillings (North Harbour)
• Charlisse Leger-Walker (Waikato)
• Esra McGoldrick (Canterbury)
• Bayley Ransfield (Taranaki)
• Tera Reed (Life Centre Academy, New Jersey, USA)
• Stirling Walker-Pitman (Waikato)
• Charlotte Whittaker (North Canterbury)

Following a busy week helping their respective schools qualify for the Secondary Schools National Tournament later in the year the Junior Tall Ferns squad has gathered in Christchurch for a two game series against the China Under 19 team. The two games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday at Cowles Stadium.

Head coach Brent Matehaere admits that preparation for the series has not been ideal but is philosophical about the challenge ahead.

“Preparations are always difficult when the players are based all over New Zealand. The girls have been focused on qualifying their schools for Secondary Schools National Championships in the past week but have now turned their attention to the China series.

“The girls had individual skill sets to work on while away from the team environment and there are a number of really supportive coaches who give up there time to work with them.  It’s the Kiwi way to just get on and do it, doing the best we can with what we have.  I’m always impressed with the girls and the improvements that they make from one camp to the next.  It really shows the commitment they have to the programme and ultimately to themselves and the opportunities that they are creating for themselves by taking their individual games to the next level.

“What we don’t have in preperation time we will have to replace with heart and desire,” said Matehaere

The games against China are a key component of the team’s preparation for the FIBA Oceania Championships, in Fiji, this December. The Championships will double as the Qualifying Tournament for the 2017 FIBA Under 19 World Championships.

Matehaere and his squad are not unfamiliar with the opposition style of play as they played nine games in China back in April.

“China are fierce competitors. They play aggressive defence with full court ball pressure and force teams to play a long way from the basket.  They train relentlessly and play the same way,” he said.

The opportunity to play a home international series has created an air of anticipation in the JTF’s camp.

“The girls take a huge amount of pride in playing for New Zealand. It is an honour to stand, look up to our flag and sing the national anthem.

“Many of the girls have family travelling to the game and to have their support is invaluable.  I was recently at a tournament in Dunedin where many of the teams were talking about getting along to the game especially the Wednesday encounter.

“It would be great to see Cowles Stadium packed with fans passionate about basketball supporting the Junior Tall Ferns and their own local players in Charlotte Whittaker (Rangiora High School) and Esra McGoldrick (Rangi Ruru Girls),” Matehaere said.

The New Zealand team has a good dose of international experience. Four of the players, Zara Jillings and the Waikato trio of Charlisse Leger-Walker, Alyssa Hirawani and Kendell Heremaia, were members of the New Zealand team that finished fifth at the FIBA Under 18 3×3 World Championships in Kazakhstan in June. In addition, Charlotte Whittaker and Tiarne Clarke both played for the New Zealand Select team against China B in Auckland over Queens Birthday weekend.

Junior Tall Ferns Squad:

• Tiarna Clarke (North Harbour)
• Aliyah Dunn (Southland)
• Kendell Heremaia (Waikato)
• Alyssa Hirawani (Waikato)
• Joellen How (Taranaki)
• Zara Jillings (North Harbour)
• Charlisse Leger-Walker (Waikato)
• Esra McGoldrick (Canterbury)
• Bayley Ransfield (Taranaki)
• Tera Reed (Life Centre Academy, New Jersey, USA)
• Stirling Walker-Pitman (Waikato)
• Charlotte Whittaker (North Canterbury)

 Games – Junior Tall Ferns v China Under 19

• Game 1: Wednesday, 7 September, tip off 1.00pm
• Game 2: Thursday, 8 September, tip off 7.30pm

Both games will be played at Cowles Stadium, Christchurch.