Coach Jeff Green and his Maori men ensured the FIBA Oceania Pacific Championships hosts would share in the spoils, with a tough 71-66 win over Australia for the men’s gold medals at Porirua.
From the outset, the home team used their superior strength and experience to impose themselves on their younger and lankier counterparts.
An 11-3 run early in the opening quarter quickly established a double-figure advantage and by halftime, the Kiwis still clung to a 35-27 margin.
In particular, Aaron Bailey-Nowell, the hero of last night’s dramatic semifinal victory, was simply bench-pressing his markers around the basket and it became a matter of whether the Maori veterans had enough left in the tank after a tough week.
The Aussies began the second half ominously by quickly whittling the lead back to five points.
A three-point play from Tad Dufelmeier Jnr and a three-pointer from Tanner Krebs saw the scores tied late in the quarter, and only a long-range reply from Daniel Green saw the locals ahead entering the final stretch.
An emphatic dunk-and-one from Joel Smith had the Aussies on even terms again, but they could never quite get their noses in front.
Every time the green-and-golds threatened, the Maori came up with a big play and on this occasion, point guard Randall Bishop immediately struck from the arc.
With 2m 41s on the clock, James Paringatai converted a three-point play that gave NZ a six-point buffer and that proved just enough.
Paringatai paced the Maori with 16 points (6/7 FG) and seven rebounds, while Ross Taurima chipped in 14 points, and Bailey-Nowell and Green had 12 each.
“Any time you play Australia in basketball, they’re going to be tough,” said Green. “We had to bring our ‘A’ game and I thought we played a great team defensive game.
“You don’t play the game to finish second and neither do Australia, so any time you get an opportunity to beat the Aussies, you’ve got to do it, don’t you?”
For Australia, Dufelmeier led all scorers with 19 points, but was the only contributor in double figures. They could have gone a lot closer to victory if they had managed to connect on better than 13/25 from the free-throw line.
“Naturally, they’re disappointed,” admitted coach Adrian Dark. “Our first half wasn’t quite at the intensity that we needed it to be and we were chasing a long deficit at halftime.
“But the boys really dug deep and they gave themselves a chance to win it.”
NZ Maori 71 (James Paringatai 16, Ross Taurima 14, Aaron Bailey-Nowell & Daniel Green 12) Australia 66 (Tad Dufelmeier Jnr 19)
Officials – Riannan De La Torre, Ryan Jones, Rouhi Maher
Live stats
Final placings
1 NZ Maori
2 Australia
3 Guam
4 Samoa
5 New Caledonia
6 Fiji
7 Papua New Guinea
8 Tahiti
All-Star Five
Pita Sowakula (Fiji), Jean Jacques Taufuna (NC), Puke Lenden (NZ), Gerasimos McKay (Australia), Mikeli Wesley (Guam)
Most Valuable Player
Aaron Bailey-Nowell (NZ)
Last Modified on 05/12/2013 07:51