AMMAN (Jordan) - New Zealand booked the first flight en route the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2024 Final by ousting China, 86-71, Sunday at the Prince Hamza Hall.
The Junior Tall Blacks found their bearings in the third quarter before running away in the deciding frame to eventually head back to the Big Dance for the second time after six years, or since doing so during their maiden campaign in 2018 in Thailand.
Now, they await the winner of the other Semi-Finals bracket featuring their Oceania rivals Australia and the gracious hosts for their foes in the title bout set Monday.
Game heroes: Carter Hopoi and Tamatoa Isaac starred in the triumph as the two were once again a formidable duo after finishing with a double-double each.
Hopoi delivered 24 points and 13 rebounds with a pair of blocks, while Isaac came through with 20 and 10 plus 5 assists as they combined for an efficiency of 53.
Kahu Treacher made his presence felt in the victory, too, as he nearly had a double-double of his own with 12 points on three triples and 8 rebounds.
Turning point: One of Treacher's triples proved key in giving themselves full control of the game, as it sparked the 10-0 run toward a 63-52 lead with 1:11 left in the third.
Stats don't lie: A decent rebounding team with 39.3 per game, China only hauled down 24 in the loss, a far cry from the 54 that New Zealand collected.
They said: "Really a hard fought contest. I thought China really came out and pressured us a lot. And it took us a minute to adjust to that. But just happy with the way we stayed the course and I thought that we started to deal with the pressure a little bit better and kinda pushed it out in the second half. Proud of our guys for staying together." - Matt Lacey, Head Coach, New Zealand
"Looking forward to whoever wins. It will be a competitive Final for sure." - Tamatoa Isaac, Guard, New Zealand
"I'm really satisfied with how our players performed in this high-level Semi-Final game. Our defense was nice today, but we did bad in our rebounding. We lost a lot of rebounds, that's the main reason why we lost." - Qu Shaobin, Head Coach, China
"I feel like looking as a whole, our team is really playing nicely. Against Japan, it was a really tough game and we came back and at the last moment, we beat them. And also, we have the most assists in the league. For sure we have shortcomings like rebounding, but we will fix it. Today's a loss but tomorrow, we still have one more game to play and we have a chance to bring a medal home." - Duan Ruiqi, Guard, China
FIBA