Tall Blacks. Photo: Photosport
The Tall Blacks have ended their Basketball World Cup campaign on a winning note, beating Egypt 88-86 in their second classification game, in a contest that went down to the wire.
New Zealand were spearheaded by strong bench efforts from Izayah Le'afa (27 points and four steals) and Isaac Fotu (14 points), while game MVP Finn Delany scored 27 points on 8-from-12 shooting.
Captain Reuben Te Rangi added nine points and five rebounds - including a pair of clutch free throws with 17 seconds remaining.
Delany said key players stood up at the right time and made big plays, singling out Le'afa for his efforts on both sides of the ball.
"It's a collective effort, we've got different guys step up during the week and make shots, Izayah is extremely talented and I'm happy for him and the other guys like Reuben who have stepped up," Delany said.
"It was nice to hit some shots with him today, I just wanted everyone to stay aggressive the whole game, the whole tournament , so it was nice."
Coach Pero Cameron reflected back the lessons learned from a loss to Mexico in the first classification game and the Tall Blacks' need to come out with energy against Egypt.
"You can see when we get close and don't achieve want we want, it affects us and ultimately it was the next turnaround game (against Mexico) that hurt us - so we made it a point that we wouldn't be low on energy again today. Hats off to my players for putting in that effort when the game came down to the wire."
Delany looked back on a rollercoaster of a World Cup tournament and the lessons he and his teammates have learned.
"The Tall Blacks and New Zealand we always compete with the superpowers around the world, we say that a lot and we did that this week - my mission and our mission was to push that further and not accept just competing with the heavyweights, we wanted to come in and win and get to the second round. We fell short of that, but we learned a lot and we kept pushing," he said.
"With Covid, everything over the past four years has felt like a very different group to my last World Cup and this is a great thing for the future - I believe a lot of guys here that weren't around even a few years ago, they're taking these experiences and growing relationships with other guys on and off the court, which is huge."
New Zealand must now wait to find out whether they have done enough to be awarded a place at the Olympic
Qualifier Series in June next year.
- RNZ