Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks beaten in opening trans-Tasman games
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PHOTOSPORT
The Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks have both been beaten by Australia in the opening games of the inaugural Trans-Tasman Throwdown basketball series in Adelaide.
The Tall Ferns were beaten 88-70 by the Opals, while the Tall Blacks went down to the Boomers 80-68.
The New Zealand women gave the number two ranked Opals a bit of a scare in the first half.
The Ferns, who featured five debutants, started strongly but the Australians had an answer to everything the visitors presented.
Australia were up by 10 after the first quarter before New Zealand closed to within four at three-quarter time. However the Ferns faded in the last stanza as the home side took control.
Sharne Robati top scored for the Tall Ferns with 19 points while Pahlyss Hokianga had 10.
Shea Ili of the Tall Blacks and Elijah Pepper of the Boomers, 2025.
Photo:
PHOTOSPORT
Meanwhile the Tall Blacks jumped out to an early lead against the Boomers on the back of the experienced heads of Reuben Te Rangi and Shea Ili.
New Zealand were up by four after the first quarter and five at half time before the home side took control.
Dejan Vasiljevic hit 23 points and Elijah Pepper 16 as Australia went on to score a comfortable victory.
Te Rangi with 15 points and Ili with 12 lead the scoring for the visitors who had only New Zealand-based players in their squad.
Tall Blacks coach Judd Flavell said they can take a lot from the game.
"The second half just got away from us and a large part of that is how the Boomers responded with their defence," Flavell said.
"We forced it too much and didn't have that flow going in the second half and that lead to them getting stops."
The second games of the series are on the Sunshine Coast on Friday before the final games in Hamilton.
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