Saipan Squads Set

June 9, 2009

Emerging Tall Blacks & Tall Ferns:

Offensive-minded Emerging Tall Blacks and Emerging Tall Ferns teams have been confirmed by Basketball
New Zealand for the FIBA Oceania Tournament later this month.

Four-time National Basketball League coach Jeff Green will guide an inexperienced men’s national
team, while Counties Manukau’s Tania Hunter will mentor a squad she described as having
“speed to burn” at the tournament in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, from June 21-26.

Waitakere City’s Duane Bailey, a tournament team selection at both the BBNZ U21 and U19 National Championships, leads an
Emerging Tall Blacks team that also includes a number of fellow tournament teamers from both tournaments, including Zach
Makavilitogia, who captained West Auckland to the U21 title in May.

“I’m pretty encouraged by the fact that of the 12 guys that I wanted, most of them are there,” Green said.

“We’re quite young, we’re going to be playing senior men, so we’ll be a bit light on experience. We’ll bring them together and mold them, play hard and represent the country well.

“We’ve got some very good three-point shooters and that includes the bigs. We’re quite small and that’s a characteristic of teams I have coached and the style we want to play.”

Porirua’s Jake Ashby, who captained St Patrick’s College to a second straight AA Secondary Schools National Championship last October, joins the group, along with Otago’s Hayden Miller and Luke Aston, Waikato’s Hemi Joyce, and fellow Porirua reps Daniel Green, Joe Maiava, Ezra Nikora and Jordan Mills, a part of the Wellington Saints NBL roster.

Canterbury’s Natalie Moore, a former Christchurch Sirens squad member and longtime national age-group player headlines the Emerging Tall Ferns.

Three members of last year’s Junior Tall Ferns team – Jordan Hunter (Counties Manukau), Zoe Kensington (New Plymouth) and Jelena Vucinic (Nelson) – have made the step-up, joining USA college-based Mandy Caldwell and Sonya Milford.

National team newcomers Miriam Slatter (Waikato) and Emma Gillespie (Waitakere City), Canterbury’s Pip Connell and Otago’s Samara Gallaher, the youngest member of the team, complete the ETFs.

“The FIBA Oceania tournament will be a challenge to these young women athletes but will be a stepping stone to their future goals,” coach Tania Hunter said.

“While Australia will be our hardest opposition, and with little scouting reports of the other countries competing we will take one game at a time but our focus will be getting to the gold medal round.

“The girls have either played with each other in age-group teams or against each other. We are a small team but we have speed to burn.”

Both teams will hold preparation camps next week before departing for Saipan, via Sydney and Seoul, on June 18. The teams will play warm-up games against the Sydney Comets during their one-night stop-over in the New South Wales capital.

New Zealand will face the senior teams of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and New Caledonia, along with U20 squads from Australia.

The Emerging Tall Blacks open their campaign on Sunday, June 21, against hosts Northern Mariana Islands, while the Emerging Tall Ferns play their opener against Guam the following day.

New Zealand Emerging Tall Blacks

Jake Ashby (Porirua), Luke Aston (Otago), Duane Bailey (Waitakere City), Daniel Green (Porirua), Hemi Joyce (Waikato), Zach Makavilitogia (West Auckland), Joe Maiava (Porirua), Hayden Miller (Otago), Jordan Mills (Porirua), Ezra Nikora
(Porirua)

Head coach: Jeff Green

New Zealand Emerging Tall Ferns

Mandy Caldwell (Canterbury), Pip Connell (Canterbury), Samara Gallaher (Otago), Emma Gillespie (Waitakere City), Jordan Hunter (Counties Manukau), Zoe Kensington (New Plymouth), Sonya Milford (Hutt Valley), Natalie Moore (Canterbury), Miriam Slatter (Waikato), Jelena Vucinic (Nelson)

Head coach: Tania Hunter

Saipan Tour Staff

Assistant coach: Bert Tobia
Manager: Philomena Terei
Physio: Sharon Choie